Watching: Pantanal

Overview

Pantanal is a South American road film, situated somewhere between fiction and documentary, that takes place between Buenos Aires and the Pantanal in Brazil’s Mato Grosso. A man flees Buenos Aires with a bag full of money and with every intention to repay the debt he owes his brother, with whom he has lost touch with years prior. The journey towards the Pantanal becomes complex as the man runs into various complications and begins to believe that someone may be following him. As visually stunning as it is intellectually stimulating Pantanal employs documentary testimonies of the people who encountered the man throughout his journey, adopting real life into the fictional narrative. Working within a hybrid between fiction and documentary keeps the film both captivating and engaging throughout the film’s entire journey, in addition to adding emotional credibility to this road movie.