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AMÉRIKA, TERRA INCÓGNITA at Anthology Film Archives

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The final part in the trilogy, AMÉRIKA, TERRA INCÓGNITA comprises a series of tableaux vivants offering a visual journey into the reverse perspective of European colonialism – the journey of a captive Indian into the Spanish court.

“Rísquez eschews (not without humor) the hagiographic dimension of the ‘myth of the noble savage’ to focus on the mutual fascination between two different cultures, two different ways of seeing and understanding the world. Rather than a humanist, progressive work, filled with good intentions, AMÉRIKA is a long waking dream, baroque, flamboyant, and uncannily astonishing… Rísquez achieves a strange surreal synthesis – of colors and movement, with a powerful ‘return of the past’ (accentuated by a tilted, increasingly oneiric framing).” –CAHIERS DU CINÉMA

“From one scene to the next, the film oscillates between a kitsch version of Méliès and a lyrical vision that often reaches real greatness, with breathtaking flashes of beauty.” –Alain Bergala