La Légende du temps

In order to clarify the approach he took to making his second film, Lacuesta refers to Johan van der Keuken, who preferred to divide his films into 'a-priori' - planned in advance and designed - and "impromptu" - aimed at searching and discovering, and open to spontaneous events - instead of the traditional division between documentary and fiction. Lacuesta's film clearly falls into the second category, as can also be said of Van der Keuken's oeuvre. So The Legend of Time is 'written' in the present tense. The film follows two people who are filmed as themselves. The first part is a moving and sensitive portrait of the 13-year-old gypsy boy Isra. He was born on the island of San Fernando in the Bay of Cádiz, in the year when Camarón de la Isla, the greatest of all flamenco singers, died. One of his obligations in mourning his father is that he is not allowed to sing. He dreams of leaving the island. We follow him in the year when his voice breaks and he experiences his first puppy love. In the second part, which takes more the form of a short story, the Japanese nurse Makiko explains how she came to the island to learn to sing like Camarón, while her sick father remained behind in Japan. The stories of Makiko and Isra, who are in the same place at the same time without meeting, reflect and augment one another in an unexpected way. (GT)