The Soul of Flies (El Alma de las Moscas) Review

17th Jun 2012

Sigh, and I wanted to like it so much. Hailed as an ‘outstanding directorial debut’ by the BFI, The Soul of Flies just never quite became a real film for me. And I really did try.

El Alma de las Moscas, stars two brothers who meet for the first time at a train station on the way to their father’s funeral. One’s thrilled to have a brother, the other is only going to the funeral to make sure that they’ve buried the old man. Forced to travel on the road together, they get to know eachother whilst dealing with a host of absurd characters. Some of whom are really annoying.

Not one of the meetings with these individuals is poignant enough to make it worth introducing the character. It’s a good premise for a story, but if you think about a film like Big Fish, it can’t compete. It’s almost like they needed to meet less weirdos and talk to them a little bit more. Without it, I just don’t see what they are really bringing to the story.

There are moments when it’s funny, moments when it’s almost sweet and when you get what it’s trying to say, but altogether it just feels clumsy and very premature. It’s perfectly possible that the twee narration was lost in translation. Perhaps in Spanish it doesn’t sounds so heavy-handed and slightly embarrassing. It lacks a polish and tightness in the editing and I was constantly checking my watch – despite it being a paltry 80 minutes long. The incredible landscape is slightly lost on the screen quality and it needs that post-production ‘oomph’; evidently there are some things that money can buy.

However, I’m going to give it two stars for sheer bloody effort. It is quite an outstanding piece when you consider only seven people were involved, and they all doubled up as crew as well. And I double checked the crew and cast lists to check if they were lying. The Director then went on to edit it all himself on his Mac at home. You’ve got to give the whole ensemble credit for that. However, as someone on the absolute fringes of film making, I know that there are editors out there, post-production individuals who will offer up their services for gummi bears and peanuts and it’s worth seeking out their help. As much as you want to, you can’t do everything yourself.

But as about ten film festivals seem to disagree with me, I’m just left wondering if I’m missing the point. Perhaps I don’t have poetic enough a soul to appreciate it. But I bought someone with me and they also thought ‘myeh’.