Venice Review: Lorenzo Vigas' Assured, Austere Debut 'From Afar' ('Desde Alla') With Alfredo Castro

A tightly clenched fist of a film, there's no doubt that "From Afar" heralds the arrival a new talent in debut Venezuelan writer/director Lorenzo Vigas. But the term usually applied to such breakouts is "exciting" and that might be a bridge too far in describing this rigorously controlled, glacially paced, wilfully enigmatic film, which literalizes its title by unfolding at arms length with a detachment that can almost seem like alienation.

As if aware that the peculiar actions and reactions of his cloudily motivated, ambivalent characters might seem erratic or unaccountable if played out at normal speed, Vigas opts for an unusual rhythm, in which indeterminate swathes of time can elapse between scenes, but the scenes individually play out in minute, unblinking detail, often wordlessly. Dialogue throughout is so sparing that it's a bit of a shock when anyone speaks, and it inevitably happens only after long periods of silence freighted with far more meaning than...