Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going

Running time: N/A

This new film by legendary Argentine director Eliseo Subiela is a brilliant piece of magical realism. It deals with reincarnation, technology and science, memory, and romance. In most films this is a prescription for mediocrity or worse. In Subiela's hands it is a moving, almost spiritual experience. He handles these elements with care and sensitivity, blending them into a unique and beautiful story somewhat reminiscent of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire. Leopoldo is a film projectionist in a failing movie theater but he is also an inventor working on capturing dreams and making them visible. His wife sees him as a hopelessly impractical dreamer. His friend Oscar is privy to Leopoldo's work and is himself the inventor of a robot patterned after Carlos Gardel, the famous Argentine singer of the twenties and thirties, i.e. a metal robot with an Argentine heart. Leopoldo discovers his invention captures not only dreams but images of the past, including Rachel, his wife in a previous life. Sensual and gorgeous, Rachel appears one day and explains their relationship over centuries of reincarnation. The story becomes a vehicle for deep feelings of longing and the meaning of life and love. Far from a Hollywood treatment, it is a fascinating and thoughtful exploration of the timelessness of human relationships. Subiela also directed the acclaimed Man Facing Southeast. --Ed Soohoo