La Leon

It's a somber film from a world of experience with which Americans will be little familiar, dark, spare, with a kind of fateful inevitability about it. I'd recommend simply that you look at the summary details and decide whether it's for you or not. The "homosexual" aspect of it is really a subordinate theme--it's the isolation, the monotony, the lack of human variety that matter more. Brutality and hypocrisy and loss emerge naturally from what is, after all, a fairly impoverished world, one that progressively impoverishes the people in it. The fútbol games are not enough to create the more humanly rich life of which the river dwellers and reed cutters and miserable migrants have been deprived. Save it for a thoughtful moment.

In a very quiet way, this was a great movie. I had no idea what to expect but it intrigued me so I gave it a shot. I was glad I did. It's English subtitled but so much was said through expression and atmospheric sense, and there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue, so that was no big deal. The lead character was excellent and did a superb job. In fact, the entire cast was great in an understated way. This is also an interesting cultural experience as it's set in an environment and part of the world I'm not familiar with. I will warn you it's in black and white, but after getting used to that, I realized it added to the movie rather than took away from it. The theme of the movie is modern but the setting isn't. It all creates for a very interesting experience. I really liked this movie and am sure I will watch it again at some point.

Well, my issue with it was that it's filmed too dark. I like black and white movies very much, but even in black and white, one still has to be able to see what's going on. Most of the reviews say that it's too darkly filmed, and I agree with that. Some people didn't get what was going on in the film, and I think a lot of that had to do with how dark the film was filmed.

I actually watched this movie twice, the second time much more was revealed about the plot and mindset of the people in that rural village. The plot and interactions of the varying characters was portrayed very well. The movie however was shot mostly in the dark, so dark you could not make out anything whatsoever. Very troubling since to get the point you gotta see whats happening. Was an OK film. Would have been great if there was more lighting in the film.

Slow. Shallow. Uninspired. Flat. And why, why shoot it in black and white without any lighting?

Much of this was photographed at night in he dark with no added light so I could never tell who was in the scene. It might have been a very good movie and it may have made sense to those who saw it on a large theater screen, but it didn't work on a hand held tablet.

First, I gave it 4 stars and not five because of what I felt was an unresolved ending. On the other hand, that ending is consistent with the film's depiction of the misery and tedium of life in one of Argentina's river deltas. American reviewers complain about the lack of content; I must point out members of other cultures not Hollywoodized to the point of stupefaction may find this film quite subtle. It discovers homoerotic desire where one would least expect it: among the lower classes who have little time for anything but the business of surviving. It exposes homophobia as a mask for such desire. And, in a "rape" scene, it turns the tables by having the "rapist" and the "victim" act out their desire for each other. I recommend it, but only for those who have realized that film reflects and critiques culture.

The movie had some visually stunning aspects but because it was b&w, it was often times hard to see, I think it was an interesting movie but it was kind of vague as to what was going on. Even though I was not all that sure about the plot lines, I think it is still worth seeing...if only for an interesting view of another place and time.

La Leon (the name of a boat, not a camp stage-name) is a beautifully filmed study of a quiet but engaging man and his life in a remote community in Argentina. The story is told quite elliptically, with minimal dialogue, which I found very effective, letting the images do most of the work. These are very beautiful, quite dark, and filmed in a kind of saturated black and white. The atmosphere is both charged, and slack in tempo, so that we really have time to look at the composition of the shots. It reminded me of the photographs of Jan Koudelka, even though they are taken in a completely different part of the world. There is a sense of the beauty of faces and of local customs. Alvaro, the main character, has a very soulful look and I found his face wonderful to contemplate, as is his quiet humanity. It means that certain events do register with their full, if unspoken, weight. And I liked the very 'organic' approach to the character's sexuality. The fact he is gay is certainly important in terms of what happens and his relation to the community, but it emerges in a natural way, neither prudishly edited nor played up to make the film sexier. This spirit of truth, and its being hard to get at in spite of the surface simplicity of the lives shown, is what guides the film, and makes it quite unique. Having said this, I would only recommend it if you're the kind of person who isn't bothered by films other people find slow, and I think it would only appeal to certain tastes.

Excellent movie! Black and white story in a silent place. The human nature (sexuality, competition, discrimination and revenge) is there to see en 80 minutes! Great atmosphere!

Película bastante normalita, de estas que quieren decir muchas cosas con el silencio y que, finalmente, lo que hace es encubrir un guión sin grande interese y casi zero diálogo. Totalmente dispensable.

Schöne Landschaftsaufnahmen in schwarz/weiss. Kein Knistern, keine Gefühle. Eine Abhandlung mit einer Super 8 gedreht. Sehr langweilig.Nehme an, die Aufnahmen sind bereits 20-25 Jahre alt. Die heutigen Filme aus Südamerika sind hervorragend, aber dieses Epos...

Le film est super bon, très bon scénario je le recommande a tout les cinéphiles, voir et revoir bonne production