Jessica Kiang The striking opening shot of Abner Benaim’s plangent drama “Plaza Catedral” induces slight vertigo. The camera rises on an elevator attached to the outside of a partially built skyscraper, looking out across Panama City’s high-rise apartment complexes, and eventually, at the bay beyond.
It should be uplifting, but a chilly, murmured voiceover and the opening drone of Matthew Herbert’s rueful score, are like the rainclouds that edge the blue sky in foreboding gray.
The view ascends, but it evokes a sinking feeling.The voice belongs to Alicia (a strong, subtle turn from Mexican actress Ilse Salas), who introduces herself and speaks elliptically, in her emotionless, removed way, of a loss she has suffered in her recent past,.
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