Viva! Film Festival: Daniel and Ana

The Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival has been one of the highlights of any calendar year at the Cornerhouse for sixteen years now, providing the city of Manchester with a unique opportunity to see a diverse range of films. Being the only festival of its kind in the UK, some of the films screened are unlikely to make it to the cinemas of these shores anywhere else, and with the subtle shift towards populism the Cornerhouse seems to be in the middle of (its disappointing decision to screen only the English dubbed version of Ponyo chief amongst its failings this year) its arrival is even more of a breath of fresh air than usual.

Daniel and Ana tells the story of the titular characters, siblings Ana and Daniel Torres. As the audience joins them, they're both at critical stages of their progression toward adulthood, with the elder of the two, Ana, soon to be married, and Daniel ready to leave his adolescence behind (one of the scenes intended to signify this, with Daniel practising potential signatures, is particularly cute). They get on well with one another, they get on well with their parents, and their respective futures seem certain to be bright. However, their contentment is shattered when they're kidnapped by people with a very specific demand to make of them. Failure to comply means guaranteed death. So they go through with it, and in the aftermath we see that their lives will never be the same again, as both of them struggle to cope with the trauma of their experience.

The film begins and ends by informing us that the events of Daniel and Ana are based on a true story, which means the air of discomfort the film provokes is heightened every time you remember that it is grounded in reality. People being forced into filming pornography is prevalent in Mexico, the footage being sold to international markets, with the crime often going unreported. The scene in question is one of the most shocking I've ever witnessed; it initially threatens to overwhelm the narrative, rendering everything that follows moot. It is to the credit of everyone involved that it doesn't.

Daniel and Ana is the first feature film from writer/director Michel Franco, who should have a promising future ahead of him. The film has echoes of the oeuvre of Michael Haneke, and whilst he's some way from scaling those heights, there's enough evidence here to suggest that he could become a very important filmmaker. That he steers clear of melodrama is something he should be commended for; given the subject matter, it would have been all-too-obvious to see the film descend into hysterics. The psychological level on which the film operates is far more interesting. Franco coaxes impressive performances from Dario Yazbek Bernal (Daniel) and Marimar Vega (Ana), whose subtle work is exactly what is required, and the restraint on display throughout precludes any accusations of shock tactics. It is far from perfect; the unrelentingly bleak tone makes it difficult to sit through, and it almost certainly belongs to this school of cinema; and the occasional appearance of a brass-heavy orchestral piece of music lent certain scenes a tragicomic air that was certainly not intended. In spite of that, it stands up as a challenging piece of cinema, and evidence that Michel Franco is one to keep an eye on.