The Idea of A Lake (2017) - Milagros Mumenthaler

Milagros Mumenthaler's The Idea of A Lake is a pensive study of loss and memory, a film which brilliantly deconstructs rhe long lasting impact those who are lost can continually have on those they've left behind, with desth itself being merely a physical construct, and only one important aspect of an individuals' contribution towards others they loved. Shifting between past and presemt, exploring the memories of our main protagonist, Ines, The Idea of A Lake taps into the primal nature of lost, crafting a beautiful tapestry in which both subjective and objective memory play a part in Ines' psyche as it pertains to her father, a man who was taken from her at a young age during Argentina's "Dirty War" which saw many men of political oppositiom to the central authority sent to the gulags or to their death. Being my first film by Argentinian and Swiss filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler I was wasnt sure ehat to expect from what had been labeled as a family drama, What I got was some truly phenomenal direction, as Mumenthaler manages to balance this family drama with biting realism and surrealist flourishes, a film that artistically exposes the effect long resonating loss has on the individual. In the flashback sequences, Mumenthaler presents the serenity of life as a child, where Ines idyllic summers present her fondest memories of her fsther. In these sequences the filmmaker reveals mostly a suvjextive reality, ever so often obstructing this through the use od Ines' mother, who brings glimmers of objectivism to the past, a character eho subtlely reveals the possibility of dangsr on rhe horizon. While Ines charscter is front and center and her emotional journey unquestionable anchors the film, the filmmaker's still provide strong characterizstioms of both Ines' mother and brother, each who seemingly have been dealing with the loss in different ways. A soul-affirming study of loss and memory that is both haunting and genuinely touching, The Idea of A Lake announces Milagros Mumenthaler as a filmmaker I must continue to keep my eye on.

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