Educational Media Reviews Online

Argentine Director Paula Hernandez’s Los Sonámbulos (The Sleepwalkers) is a slow-building film centering around the experiences of a mother and daughter during an annual holiday trip to the family cottage. The film’s title (notably in the plural) refers to a physical affliction, which we witness in the daughter in the first scene, but also to a metaphorical sleepwalking that permeates the mother’s life.

From the outset, independence is revealed as central to both of the main characters’ struggles, as each navigates her own personal rocky shores of development and change within the confines of the family unit. As a result, watching this carefully tuned reflection on the complexities of family life, particularly the foundational relationships and personal development of two compelling female protagonists, is not an easy trek. It requires patience on the part of the viewer as tension builds, and dense and layered family dynamics reveal themselves.

The film has a restless and slightly claustrophobic feel throughout. The filmmakers use a lot of close-up shots of bodies, faces, hands and feet to bring us into the sphere of intimacy with the main characters, while at the same time limiting any clarifying exposition in the dialogue. The result is a film in which we experience the tension in real time along with the characters, and the narrative arc remains something of a mystery until the end.

The strength of this film is the manner in which it slowly pulls us in to the emotional sphere of the two women. It feels like we’re experiencing things with them, almost as them. That said, it would have benefited from some finely tuned editing to move the story along at a slightly faster pace. It’s slow to start and often feels more observational than narrative-building. This leads the viewer to question where the film is going, as one emotionally dense and intimate scene after another piles up. And when the explosion does finally occur at the end, there is a sense of inevitability even as we struggle with the intensity of what has occurred.

The Sleepwalkers is a compelling and well-crafted film, but whether it has any educational or instructional value is uncertain. It may be a good selection for courses in social psychology, cultural anthropology, family systems, adolescent psychology, human behavior, interpersonal communication, human development, and women’s health. Recommend with reservations . The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Awards:
Silver Condor award for Best Film, Argentine Film Critics Association (2021); Argentine entry for ‘Best International Feature Film’, 93rd Academy Awards (2021); Havana Film Festival, Best Film, Best Script, Best Actress; Fine Arts Film Festival, Dominican Rep. & Puerto Rico, Best Director, Best Actress; Alturas Intl. Film Festival, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress

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