Mbah Jhiwo

It is hard to believe that this is the first feature film by Álvaro Gurrea -- the cinematography reveals a confident maturity, switching scales between domestic conversations and the alien Kawah Ijen landscape. Sulphuric smoke blurs documentary and the central timeless fable told in three parts, of lost love, illness, and livelihood. The title translates literally to "ancient soul". In one of the many banters, a man considers the similarities between money and apparitions. The ambient soundtrack ebbs and swells from background to foreground. The result is surreal and mesmerising.