Silent Struggle (Sara Salamo, 2025): Spain
Reviewed by Salma Morales. Viewed at SBIFF.
El Silencio, also known as Silent Struggle, followed along the journey of Isco Alarcón. During his season with a new team, he had gotten injured on his foot and was in a boot. His wife made this documentary therefore we could follow along his healing journey and show us behind the scenes of how this act held him at a chokehold mentally and physically. The editing was never too fast to cut to the next scene, it lingered to show the afterfact of what Isco was feeling, as if we’re in pain with him and not cutting time to heal faster. Since Isco was feeling alone, most scenes were filmed of him being isolated for training/ gym, appointments, throughout the documentary. The team’s colors were white and green- the whole documentary stuck to the green color scheme, ranging from darks to lights and to pastels. The pallet was very strict and not as vague compared to other films/ documentaries. As there are lots of stories that follow an athletes
The Heart Is A Muscle (Imran Hamdulay, 2025): South Africa | Saudi Arabia
Reviewed by Salma Morales. Viewed at SBIFF.
The Heart is a Muscle, a film that hypothetically proves the heart is a muscle. I felt this film had a strong message, made you feel sympathetic, and overall had you thinking of ‘how your past can affect you internally- who it makes you become today.’ This film was very absorbing on how you lived your childhood, and depending on how it affected you (good or bad), the past builds in personality traits into you and sends you out to the adult world. The beginning of the film started with a strict eye level of the bar of a shopping cart, dad and son grabbing any and all items off the grocery shelves. While grabbing items off the shelves and tossing them into the cart (like nothing), the cart is still moving forward. This visual scene also captured a deep meaning of living off essentials and moving on with your life. As this was the opening scene, it had no context- just visuals. After the film, some tend to recap the movie and