October 30, 2015 -- I've seen this described as a Western, but it doesn't take place in the Old West. Instead, it takes place in a wilderness that seems to come out of the Twilight Zone, lacking any kind of coherent geography, time period or consistent cast of characters.

In this strange story, Gunnar Dinesen (played by Danish-American actor Viggo Mortenson of “The Lord of the Rings” movies who not only stars in this film, but also helped to produce it and composed the music for the film) is a Danish Captain involved in a construction project which involves a bunch of men digging a ridiculous ditch in the middle of a desert in Argentina. His daughter, Ingeborg (Viilbjørk Malling Agger) is along on this expedition with her father. She decides to run away with a young soldier named Corto (Diego Roman). Gunnar sets off in pursuit.

Although the wilderness where this is filmed is supposed to be a desert, it isn't. The story is set in Argentina, where they do have real deserts, but it was filmed in Denmark, where the abundant water (there is a large lake in one scene) and vegetation don't belong in a desert setting. The local hostile native population, referred to as “coconut heads” by the Danish soldiers, look like Polynesian natives from some other part of the world.

That's not the only thing that makes this seem like an episode of the Twilight Zone, there is also a scene from an entirely different time period. While most of the story takes place in the 1880s with old style clothes and equipment, one part of the film seems to take place maybe 50 to 100 years later. The connection between this scene and the rest of the film is tenuous at best.

In another scene, there are hints that one of the characters has aged perhaps 50 years, while the main character, Gunnar, hasn't aged at all. This also seems relatively unconnected to the main part of the story. One explanation is that the main character is hallucinating these events. The end result is a kind of “Memento” vibe: A hint that the main character is making up his own reality (perhaps because reality has become too difficult to face) as he goes along on this quest.

This is a kind of road picture with a man on a quest, encountering people, dogs and obstacles along the way. His situation seems to get more and more hopeless as he travels along through this strange landscape. He finally starts talking to himself, wondering what is it that keeps him moving forward.

While this is a kind of experimental storytelling, the look of the film is old school. The film is shot in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which is the same aspect ratio as an old-style TV set. It isn't too great a chore to sit though this film, but it isn't really compelling, either. The story lacks a real payoff punch. The ending story is ambiguous, so you can make of it what you will, and to me, it was anemic. This film rates a C. The languages are Danish and Spanish, with English subtitles.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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