The Circuit

by John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga

GIJON, Spain. 

When does a good director become a great director?

For Spain, one answer might be: Last weekend. On Saturday, a smiling Carlos Reygadas bounded onto stage to accept the top Golden Columbus at the Huelva Ibero-American Fest in Andalusia from fellow Mexican and jury president Arturo Ripstein.  16 hours later, there he was fielding questions at a press conference in Gijon, Asturias, whose fest showcased a Reygadas trib.

And just after Sunday midnight, he took in a long and lively Q & A, after "Silent Light"s Gijon screening, winning new converts. "He talked about everything and everything he said was interesting, inspiring," said Mateo Perez Alvarez. Laurelled, lionized and lauded, Reygadas has come storming out of the gate: "Japon," his feature debut, is only five years old.

For the Spanish-speaking world, the mantle of greatness is rapidly slipping over Reygadas. Some tell-tale signs:

* Directors are beginning to talk about making a film "in the Reygadas style," to quote Bolivian director Rodrigo Bellott, talking about his own, just finished English-language film, "Perfidy."

*  The books are beginning: Gijon's "Claves para tres miradas" (Keys to Three Looks) includes admiring essays on all three of Reygadas' features: "Japon" (2002), "Battle in Heaven" (2005) and "Silent Light" (2007).

* Reygadas has a niche in a pantheon - not new Mexican cinema; given the accessibility of and interest in film-making worldwide, the very concept of new national cinemas may be arcane - but new, left-field world cinema, up there with other unorthodoz film-makers such as, say, Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Tropical Malady").

* And, like many singularly talented film-makers, he still doesn't have an easy time putting together his films. "Battle" boasts 15 different financing sources. Isn't that worrying, Variety asked in Gijon. No, he countered, it's just the price, he said, of "absolute independence:"

One reason, why, unlike compatriots Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro, Reygadas is unlikely to be making a Hollywood move anytime soon.

Photo from the Cannes Film Festival.