The Vessel (2016)

The Vessel: Directed by Julio Quintana. With Lucas Quintana, Martin Sheen, Jacqueline Duprey, Aris Mejias. Ten years after a tsunami destroyed a small-town elementary school with all the children inside, a young man builds a mysterious structure out of the school’s remains, setting the town aflame with passions long forgotten.

“This is film is about the role of the artist in a community during a period of collective trauma, and the artistu0026#39;s relationship to religion and a basic level of politics. It doesnu0026#39;t go into great detail about anything, it just states positions. This is what the film does best. There are films that take the stated positions and go a lot further, but it isnu0026#39;t possible to squash everything into one short film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI have not seen anyone attempt this task quite so openly before. Usually when people try this they get into adversarial and absolute conflicts. Itu0026#39;s good this film avoided that.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eVisually and conceptually there is everything to recommend The Vessel. I watched the English version, and immediately wished I was listening to Spanish. English just doesnu0026#39;t quite work for the style of communication, so if you have the option, use Spanish.”