Ano Una

Courtesy of CineVegas

Tasha Chemplavil

Sunday, June 15, 2008 | 11:08 a.m.

Part of CineVegas’s La Próxima Ola showcase of new Mexican filmmakers, Jónas Cuarón’s Año Uña (The Year of the Nail) is an experimental film in which the director follows the relationship between a young Mexican boy and his older American love interest. But instead of using motion pictures, Cuarón chooses to tell his story through a succession of still photographs.

Cuarón took over 8,000 pictures of his daily life over the course of a year. He then wove 2,000 of those pictures into a narrative storyboard. The pictures were shot without a story in mind. But once Cuarón added a fictional script to his photo documentary, he had created his first feature film, Año Uña.

While the pictures are of Cuarón’s real-life brother and girlfriend, the film is about Diego and Molly. Molly is an American studying in Mexico, and Diego is a member of the family who eventually take Molly in as a boarder. Diego develops a crush on gringa Molly, and the pair’s relationship evolves over the course of the film.

Although Año Uña’s story moves slowly at times, the novelty of Cuarón’s technique and the sincerity of the script are enough reason to check out this innovative film.