"Shattering" is about the only word that can do justice to this movie. A knockout performance from Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as a writer suffering from breast cancer who discovers letters from a photographer killed during the Spanish Civil War, who relates the story of his betrayal of the woman who loved him. The writer, recovering from a mastectomy, goes from Madrid to Argentina and traces the path that the two lovers took in 1934, when the photographer sold his lover into a brothel and subsequently tried to buy her back. The two stories - the writer trying to come to terms with her cancer, and the young woman unaware of the fate that awaits her, keep you on the edge of your seat as the dual stories unfold. The anger and bitterness of the writer at her own fate recedes as she becomes totally immersed in the fate of the other woman. A great deal of the action takes place on the Patagonian coast, where the whales come from nowhere and vanish back into the far beyond. As an expression of the mystery of existence this movie is absolutely shattering. Time and place cross so that you find the two stories converging in a way that is mesmerizing. A heart-stopping ending that will etch itself on your memory. This is movie-making of a first class order. Kudos to everyone, actors, director and writer for a wholly original experience. Do anything you can to get your hands on this movie.
Review of The Whore and the Whale
