A mirror-image companion piece to Nostalgia for the Light, Patricio Guzmán’s latest meditation identifies water as the unifying element of the universe (“when water moves, the cosmos intervenes”), looking out towards space for the origins of life, and down into the depths of the ocean for a hidden history of death. At its strongest when documenting the colonial suppression of Chilean Patagonia’s indigenous seafaring population, this segues somewhat awkwardly into an account of the Pinochet regime’s disposal of bodies in watery mass graves. As always, Guzmán unearths details that establish resonant connections between diverse worlds (the “pearl button” of the title proves typically allusive) but at a brief 82 minutes this feels like too many streams gathering in one overcrowded pool.
