"The Ancient Ones said that Jauja was a mythological land of abundance and
happiness. 

"Many expeditions tried to find the place to verify this.

"With time, the Legend grew disproportionately. People were undoubtedly exaggerating, as they
usually do.

"The only thing that is known for certain is that all who tried to find this
earthly paradise got lost on the way."

That's the hook that appears in the opening credits and it's the cue for the audience to tighten their lips and nod their head in that “Mmm! Ok now I’m interested…” manner.

Your Local Guardian:

Now I must admit I’m not a huge fan of Argentinian movies but I’m not so shallow that I can’t appreciate foreign films with subtitles so I was willing to give this film the benefit of the doubt. (Actually that does still sound sort of shallow.)

The film is directed by Lisandro Alonso and is set in Patagonia situated in the furthest tip of South America.

The story takes place in a remote military outpost in 1882 a time when the Argentine army was busy implementing their ‘Conquest of the desert’ or in other words the complete extinction of the native aboriginal population.

A Danish officer, Captain Gunnar Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) has joined the troop as an engineer to pave the way for future homesteaders.                    
Your Local Guardian:
He has brought along his 15-year old daughter Ingeborg who appears to go everywhere with him, from one outpost to another with no real place to call home.

Ingeborg inadvertently upsets the current status quo with the troops who appear to be a horny bunch.

None more so than the lustful Lieutenant Pittaluga who is an older and experienced war-weary soldier who truly believes in the total genocide of the local people who live in the Patagonian desert. He also makes no secret of his lust for the Captains daughter.

With no stability or bright future Ingeborg takes up with one of the young soldiers and they steal a horse and ride off into the desert night.

When the Captain finds out he sets off on a quest to find his daughter and bring her back.

But to do this he has to trek through the rocky desert to Jauja- ‘Land of Plenty’ (pronounced How-ha) a mysterious strange place that is said to be beyond time where there is no past and an empty future.

Your Local Guardian:

This all sounds very exciting and I was hooked.

I saw this as a kind of South American Western except that the film lost me again after the first twenty minutes or so.

Unfortunately the director Alonso seems to lose his way just as much as Viggo Mortensen’s character does and tries to be too meaningful and clever.

This is very much an Art film and I must admit that visually there are some wonderful images of the rugged landscape and there is a nice contrast of the red trousers of the uniforms against the barren desert particularly when the Captain is wandering aimlessly through the different terrains.

The whole film was shot in 35mm and framed in 4:3 aspect ratio which produces rounded corners to the frame.

This is all very well and does look good but Alonso is known for his lingering shots on one subject such as a desert brush scene.

He holds this image as we watch Captain Dinesen walk through the desert scrubland for about five minutes (with no dialogue or music) until he disappears.

This is a reoccurring theme in the film but this time it could be walking up a rocky hillside and to be honest I was starting to fall asleep.

Your Local Guardian:

This is a shame because Viggo Mortensen is a great actor, although his more widely known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) and A History of Violence (2005) both mainstream movies. A couple of his films you should check out are Eastern Promises (2007) and A Dangerous Method (2001).

However, it does worry me sometimes when the leading actor is also credited as Producer and creating the music.

There was also a nice sub-plot that could have been built upon but just faded away. The Lieutenant Pittaluga told Captain Dinesen of a tale about a renegade officer Colonel Zuluaga who went native and roams the desert dressed in a woman’s gown randomly killing anyone he comes across, even stray soldiers.

Pittaluga dismisses this as just a legend as he knew Zuluaga when he fought beside him in battle. Also the protagonist Dinesen does eventually come across Zuluaga in the desert so there was potential here for an Apocalypse Now Colonel Kurtz moment.

The film veers further and further away from reality until it drifts into an odd modern day ending which involves an old Danish mansion and a 15-year old girl wandering around half naked which is a bit awkward to watch.

It has been said that the desert area in Patagonia does actually have a near-mythical status so the locals would certainly understand the theme of the film.

Also Viggo Mortensen was perfect casting as he lived in Denmark and grew up in Buenos Aires in Argentina and speaks both Danish and Spanish.

Verdict:
I’m afraid that I lost 101 minutes of my life watching this film. It just didn’t hold my interest enough but it had a good story. I did promise that I wouldn’t use the ‘P’ word to describe my take on it.

TWO out of five stars

In cinemas April 10, 2015