Competing in the Orizzonti section of this year’s Venice International Film Festival, The Ivy, written and directed by Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragán, focuses on a 30-year-old woman, Azucena (Simone Bucio), who starts spying on some teenagers who reside in a group home. She starts hanging out with them, finding solace from her loneliness and looking for a way to deal with what looks like a traumatic past, where she had to give up what could have been an Olympic career. Over time, Azucena develops an interest in a 17-year-old boy, Julio (Francis Eddú Llumiquinga). Their relationship helps both of them heal from their wounds while also challenging societal norms about what is considered “appropriate”.

The Ivy is driven almost entirely by intimacy, using extreme close-ups for the majority of its scenes, and relies on the powerful relationships between its characters to develop its story. This is not unusual in itself, but at the same time, it’s also peculiar in its decision to take it to the extreme. This choice may seem like an easy shortcut to get through to the protagonists’ feelings, but in actual fact, it can be seen as a risky manoeuvre. As a consequence, the results that Barragán has achieved are deserving of praise. Indeed, camera positions such as these can potentially be disastrous, especially when dealing with non-professional actors, as in the case of the extraordinary Francis Eddú Llumiquinga (Bucio, on the other hand, is an experienced thesp).

The film emphasises a sensory experience, enhanced by the genuine performances and the attention paid to the details of the bodies and the way they interact. Sometimes, the focus is also on the details of places, which, in a certain way, mirror the human emotions or physiques. Only towards the end does the director release the characters from the tight framing – almost symbolically – a move that represents their emotional liberation.

It becomes clear that Barragán is a great director of actors, able to get the best out of every scene, and this is probably her greatest achievement here. Some directors are skilled at writing scripts and chiselling them into their very best version, others at mastering the cinematography and the visuals, while, as in this case, for some, directing actors is the most natural of jobs. Needless to say, movies work better when the filmmaker knows how to manipulate all of the strings keeping their projects together. In this case, Barragán shows full mastery of one skillset but may still be uncertain as to how to get the best out of the story itself. It sometimes feels as though the film’s emotional potential is slightly muffled, as if we were sensing it from another room, despite the constant physical closeness to its players.

Overall, what we get is a very intense story, portrayed by an incredibly well-directed cast, and a strong sense of compositional balance. However, the film never feels fully complete – it’s as though something remains emotionally out of reach – and this sensation may be unsettling for certain audiences.

The Ivy was produced by Botón Films (Ecuador), BHD Films (Mexico), Ciné-Sud Promotion (France) and Guspira Films (Spain). Its world sales are handled by Bendita Film Sales.