La balsa de piedra

To be fair, at first I was rather hesitant to watch this movie because of the ambivalent ratings on IMDB. However, as I worked through the entire oeuvre of director George Sluizer, this was the one I saved until last.

Sluizer is an amazing director, who was, unfortunately, largely misunderstood during his own lifetime in his home country, The Netherlands, and mostly ignored by critics. Probably partly due of this, but I think mostly because of his great enthusiasm for travelling, he made many wonderful movies all over the world, including Brazil, the Middle East, and several European countries. It takes a lot of courage to direct movies in six different languages, but Sluizer succeeded masterfully. This is also the case for this film, which is situated on the Iberian peninsula and includes Spanish and Portuguese dialogue. In a sense, Sluizer thus is not a distinctive Dutch director, but an artist with a universal scope.

Now, I am very happy to have saved The Stone Raft for so long, as I am able to finish my series with a very strong film. The Stone Raft smartly blends magical realism with political satire and heartfelt emotions. Furthermore, the members of the 'fellowship' travelling around the peninsula - containing out of three men, two women, and a dog - are portrayed by good actors. Maybe, this film might not be your favourite genre, or you might find it slightly slow, yet a true film lover should be able to recognise its quality.

Although I have never read Jose Saramago's novel The Stone Raft (A Jangada de Pedra), I did read his most famous one, Blindness (Ensaio sobre a cegueira), and with this knowledge I recognised a lot of elements of his typical writing style. Therefore, in my eyes it is a worthy adaption of the Noble Prize winning author's writings.