Kiro Russo is the man with a movie camera who, like Dziga Vertov who came before him, whisks us on an exhilaratingly detailed journey through a city and its surroundings. With jeweler’s eye precision, a complex series of compressed telephoto images moves us from the general to the abstract. Slowly we hover through concrete rows of shimmering new builds, through the morning rush hour, and directly into the clenched coils that hold together the bridges of La Paz. Joined by a pair of fellow miners, it’s Elder’s (Julio César Ticona) first time on a cable car. He slept through the experience having just finished the miles-long trek on foot from his home to the capital of Bolivia. In town to plead for his job back, the terminally ill miner is given a new lease on life by a traveling medicine man and a godmother he claims never to have met. Russo takes full advantage of the city’s ranking as the highest administrative capital in the world, making his symphony of a great metropolis so all-encompassingly overwhelming that when plot intervenes one can’t help but be a little disappointed. (2021) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.