Ed Ao Having read other reviews people complain the movie is pointless, that it hints and sways this way and that but never delivers.I would say that this is exactly why I liked the movie. At the beginning it suggests something sinister is happening with the man on the highway with the lizard and the peculiar village woman with accusations of lizards eating brains. By the end of the movie none of our suspicions about the village are totally confirmed or denied. The bit in where she is asleep in the shed on camera and the lizard is on her shoulder she falls out of shot before it is confirmed that it did anything to her.In American films all our suspicions would be confirmed our curiosity would be satisfied by the end of the film, all the boxes ticked. American films only offer open ends to let you know they are making a sequel. This kind of obvious story telling is for teenagers.I found the story of Obaba refreshing, it played on our paranoid fantasies, and allowed us to turn Obaba into something it wasn't. It was in fact a very mature bit of film making, and it was nice to watch a film that wasn't completely predictable from beginning to end. It could have all too easily turned into a zombie film about villagers getting their brains eaten by telepathic super lizards, but then Hollywood has that covered.

Spuzzlightyear Although this starts out promisingly, a woman in a car is weaving around dark roads in the middle of the night in the middle of the forest until she almost hits a man holding a lizard! This gave me the impression that we were going to see something special, something almost David Lynchian (if there is such a term), but unfortunately, the film starts to go everyplace, not having a core center, just sort of meandering story about a woman trying to solve a mystery of a small town. The character study goes all over the place, and I couldn't really care for any of the characters it seems, especially when some of the story all of a sudden goes into flashback mode. I had some hopes for this movie, but all in all, it was a bit of a letdown.

shanfloyd Obaba is the film that was sent from Spain to the Academy for the foreign language film category. Considering its extraordinary theme with equally unique presentation, it's hard to imagine why it didn't get the Oscar nomination nod. The story tells us about Lurdes, a young filmmaker who travels to the village Obaba to shoot a documentary about its people. Some of the aged inhabitants recall their childhood experiences and these experiences are shown as separate short films. Lurdes tries to co-relate all their stories, in order to do which she slowly becomes a part of Obaba. The village is perhaps meant to be treated as a consciousness, as suggested by the director by his brilliant use of the myth of green lizards as a metaphor.The film excludes all the typical and clichéd camera angles and shot sequences. For using visual themes, it does many brave experiments. Some of the acting performances are worth mentioning too, for example the actress who played the schoolteacher or the boy who played Esteban. To summarise, "Obaba" was indeed a very refreshing experience for us who often get tired by the same styles of Hollywood hits.

info-6064 I found Obaba as the Montxo's best film. Atxaga's work is also visible. The way the director shows the misery of the rural life and the beauty and attraction of the rural environment is magnificent. I've seen almost all the Armendariz's films and I think Obaba is the (final?) good result of a "not so good" filmography. The camera man's work is very good, in the "filming scenes" specially. The best artist is Pilar Lopez Ayala - the teacher- which makes me believe in "the teacher" much more than the other artists. The worst Juan Diego Botto which, I found, doesn't have many registrations in his work as an actor. I've seen it not only in that film.... a pity...) A very international film... let's see in the Oscar.... A universal Basque film.