In the City of Sylvia (2007)

Essential Viewing

Spain/France

Feature Film

Original Title: En la ciudad de Sylvia

Writer/Director: José Luis Guerín

Cinematographer: Natasha Braier

Cast: Xavier Lafitte, Pilar López de Ayala

Plotless and near enough dialogue free, Guerín’s remarkably sensual film – in which a handsome young man returns to Strasbourg in search of a woman, Sylvia, who he had a brief encounter with six years earlier – is a piece that relies more on random faces and the ambient noise of everyday life than on conventional filmic techniques to portray the inner-life of its enigmatic protagonist, and whilst that might scare off most potential viewers, those willing to submit to its gentle rhythms are likely to experience a work of considerable beauty. Iain.Stott