But how can you resist a filmmaker who uses an old Spanish saeta as if it was an unpublished Ennio Morricone theme? Is real beauty ever pure?

Since premiering at Cannes the movie has become notorious for its shocking, emphatically unerotic sex scenes, though it's equally notable for its striking visual conceits and small moments of intense feeling.

Reygadas proves that rare filmmaker interested in tackling both the personal and the political through expressly confrontational means.

A simultaneously austere and visceral work, one steeped in mystery and longing.