It is a painfully beautiful film, much the same as its literary device of renderings of  the attempted execution of St. Sebastian.  Pain and beauty come together. They are not contrasted; they are merged in one of the best films of the year. “La Bola Negra” is both memorable and unforgettable. A rare feat but it does it. It’s agonizing and brutal and tender and warm. It’s a blend of many styles and themes with a mixture of three stories. It’s full, it’s rich and it is fantastic.

By the 19th century St. Sebastian became a gay icon. Many essays and papers cover how the angelic face soldier survived an execution by the sling of arrows while tied to a tree. His face is always portrayed not in suffering nor agony. The leading character in this is thus named Sebastain. When Italians accidentally bomb his village, Sebastian climbs over a large statue of St. Sebastian. Gripping one of the stuck arrows in the marble torso for leverage. The metaphors are rich and passionate. “La Bola Negra” is about suppression of passion. The suppression of your orientation and yet the passion drips through visually and in character.  This is terrific filmmaking-it is passionate filmmaking. The result is near perfection. “La Bola Negra” is a masterpiece of film.

The winner of Best Director of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, Winner of the San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival and winner of the People’s Choice Award in the Toronto Film Festival and Winner at the Sydney Film Festival “La Bola Negra” has captivated audiences almost everywhere it goes. The richness and saturation pours out of every scene, but it also see-saws to a present era filming, subtracting from its surrealism, allegorical take and it never waives from its beauty. The film is nearly two hours and thirty minutes long and I wish it could have been more. It’s poetry in motion with its back story and then more blunt and real in present time to contrast-yet never losing its pace nor theme-passion overrides borders. The surreal, the dreamy quality is levitated and heightens the cinematic experience. It’s also the best edited film of the year. The violent cuts, and soft transitions are so well placed it agonizing.  The film score is lavish with a dash of longing. What could have been if there was no civil war? What could have been if being gay wasn’t illegal.

“La Bola Negra” works best when trying to write. When the characters get to be without a muddle of lines. If one chooses a subtraction to the film that is overtly burdened with dialogue. But that is occasional.

The film will be in my top ten films of the year and near to maybe top three. Its two small scenes that are in black and white cements the play and passion of film in this. At times the cinematography was so gorgeous and then so brutal. It’s that see-sawing of love and war and it is all played out in three stories linked to each other There is a harkening to the past but for us to understand the setting, to understand the characters but not nostalgia, never nostalgia, it’s all passion, painfully gorgeous passion.  10/10