Vast

Bubbles merge and burst in the water. A swarm of birds fly wildly up and down as threatening clouds avalanche towards the camera. This experimental nature documentary cycles through detailed close-ups and sweeping expanses, and through long and ultra short scenes: a cricket leaps away after just a couple of seconds, while sand swirls for several minutes on a dirt road. These tranquil scenes show the rough landscape of the central Argentine province of La Pampa. Only halfway through are the first words spoken, with a cut to black while a man talks about God. And there are other scenes in this poetic film that make similar demands on the imagination. There are sounds whose origin remains unknown, and in many cases it’s difficult to know exactly what you’re seeing. Time and space flow into one another, combining to create a sense of vastness and infinity. A recurring scene of an old man at a window smoking a cigarette gives humanity a place in a landscape where the human scale is far from all-defining.