Domingo (Carlos Ureña) contemplates the changes happening around his Costa Rican town, a town close to the country’s capital of San Jose. His routine involves buying a litre of bottled rum and walking home, which should feel safe since he does this at night. The film Domingo and the Mist shows, as it normally does, a night when things go right and half an hour into its running time, a night when everything goes wrong.
Two men riding the same motorcycle pass Domingo, and from a distance he hears bullets. As it turns out, those men work for a lawyer doing a hard sell soft sell pitch to everyone in the town to leave so he can build a highway in the middle of it. Domingo wants to hold on even if his daughter Sylvia (Sylvia Sossa) and friend (Esteban Brenes Serrano) try to convince him not to. His reason for staying is that believes his dead wife’s presence still haunts his home, appearing as a mist, and leaving means losing her.
Ariel Escalante Meza’s film does have some filler scenes and pacing issues. There’s also the occasional scene where he tries to break cinematic rules, but all that one or two scenes do is dislocate the viewer for a little bit. As I write this, it at least puts a compelling face on the troubles that Domingo is facing. I also appreciate the bit of magic realism and poetry for us to empathize with such a complex character.
- Release Date: 9/13/2022
