An intimate and deeply personal dystopian coming-of-age story about three brothers living in isolation with a painful secret.
Brothers Salvador, Oliver and Benjamin live in a remote Mexican forest. Parents or school are nowhere to be seen: they only have each other. Isolation protects them from a virus that has taken over the world. But the brothers share a painful secret, that won’t stay hidden once their peace is jeopardized.
Mexican director Isaac Ezban has made several idiosyncratic science fiction films, like Los Parecidos (2015), which played at Imagine. In Párvulos, he leaves behind his ironic, high-concept approach for the sake of a far more personal and emotional story. The dedicated young cast carries the film impressively and the rough landscape creates an oppressive sense of isolation and danger. When the brothers’ secret is revealed, the fragile balance of their chosen isolation comes under attack, and the film takes a grim turn. The ending is both tragic and hopeful.
