Trails

If there is one word that could describe this movie, it is transcendental. Beautiful could be another good word but it does not feel enough. I am not sure I have understood the entire depth of the insane dialogue, but there is an universal tug every viewer will feel while watching this and that is because this is such an universal story. I believe Portugal has never been shot with such elegance, with such passion and with such poetry(a belief that needs testing, though). You can just stare at the landscapes for two hours and then come out of this with a satisfied and profound state of mind. It does have two stories separated by a fable, the first a folklore about an escaping couple set in the older times and the other, much ahead in time, about another similar couple running from a feudal lord. But this wasn't about the people, this was about the trails, the land, the earth, the culture, the oral tradition, the music and all things that binds one to the land. And all of it was so transcendental in the execution that I cannot put this movie experience into words. You have to experience it. I will not not say 'You will love it' or 'It has become one of my most favorite movies', but this was definitely different. A combination of unique ideas and perhaps too literal a poem, a poem embedded in both visuals and dialogue, hence quite difficult to resolve and very different from the usual. In its own rhythm and in its own strangeness, Veredas is an experience that has opened up a new type of film cognition in me.