DC Shorts Blog

Review: “DANZAK”

By DC Shorts on January 25, 2009 8:13 PM | Comments (0)

Director: Gabriela Yepes
Running Time: 20 minutes
Genre: Drama
IMDB Entry

It’s a shame that I don’t speak Spanish because if I did I think I’d appreciate the visually beautiful and emotionally compelling Danzak, directed by Gabriela Yepes, even more. A wonderful blend of tradition and modern life, Danzak tells the story of Nina, a young girl living in the mountains of Peru with her mother and dying father. Nina’s father is accomplished in an ancient traditional Peruvian style of dance that he has passed on to his daughter, a dance which is used to incredible effect to tell a story that is at once laced with sorrow over the father’s fragile heart yet brimming with the power of faith and respect to ways that predate our own lives by centuries and will outlast us by just as long.

Limited by the necessity of reading the subtitles, Danzak nevertheless conveys an incredible level of emotional depth through the beautiful scenery of Peru and the blatant desperation that young Nina projects. Not yet ready to mourn, she is a little girl desperate to hold onto her father and so she grasps at what he has taught her, holding on as tight as she can to his costume and the dance he has taught her. The dialogue, actors and setting all make for a world that as far away from our own homes and lives as it may be, nevertheless unfolds before us as though a portal to Peru and a beautiful part of its culture were opened up.