‘Glimmers’ that fade before the light of the gospel

Contemporary Spanish cinema has seen the arrival of a director who, with unusual subtlety and an intimate visual approach, captures the complexities of childhood, adolescence and family relationships.

Pilar Palomero, known for her acclaimed films Las niñas (The Girls, 2020) and La maternal (The Maternal, 2022), returns with Los Destellos (Glimmers, 2024), a work that delves into the small moments of life that, as its title suggests, shine briefly before fading away.

In this new film, Palomero continues to explore her signature theme of silent wounds while raising questions about existence itself and the meaning of loss.

However, although Los Destellos stands out for its honesty and subtlety in its depiction of human suffering, from a Christian perspective this vision of grief and loss is incomplete.

Palomero skilfully traces feelings of emptiness and hopelessness, but her characters seem trapped in the gloom of the existential abyss, finding no purpose to give meaning to their suffering.

This is where the Gospel of Christ sheds a different light, offering a deeper understanding of pain, not as an end in itself, but as an opportunity for spiritual growth and redemption.

Through a slow cinematography and almost photographic moments, Palomero evokes the fragility of human existence. She places her characters in everyday environments where they wander in search of answers. The use of long shots and soft natural light creates a melancholic atmosphere in which the viewer is drawn into the lives of the characters, sharing their anguish and bewilderment at what they are experiencing.

That existential void that Palomero portrays in her characters becomes a desolate space that invites the viewer to introspection, but never offers a way out. The film does not propose definitive answers, but rather it merely shows pain in its purest state, which creates a feeling of contained anguish.

While Palomero's film reflects pain as an intrinsic condition of the human experience, the Gospel offers a transformative vision: suffering is not a condemnation, but an opportunity to draw closer to God and find meaning in our existence. As James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance".

That silence has an overwhelming weight in the film, evoking a sense of abandonment, as if life has ceased to speak to them. They move like shadows, caught between the memory of what once was and the uncertainty of what will never come.

However, that silence does not necessarily have to be interpreted as an absence of God. The silence of God is often an invitation to faith and a deeper trust in His presence. It is in times of trial and pain, when it seems that God is silent, that the believer is called to trust more fully that He is at work in our lives, even when we may not fully understand. As Romans 8:28 points out, "all things work together for good for the good of those that love God".

That comfort is missing in Los Destellos.

The alternative offered by the Gospel is the certainty that, even if we do not always understand the reasons for our suffering, there is a promise of redemption and restoration.

[destacate]The 'glimmers' of beauty and fragility captured in the film are, from a Christian perspective, temporary glimpses of a greater, eternal truth[/destacate]While Los Destellos portrays suffering as unavoidable and without answers, Christian faith transforms this view: pain is part of a larger process, not a trap with no way out. In this light, suffering becomes a path leading to hope rather than a final destination.

The 'glimmers' of beauty and fragility captured in the film are, from a Christian perspective, temporary glimpses of a greater, eternal truth.

The light of Christ is not ephemeral or flickering, but a light that prevails in the darkness. As John 1:5 tells us, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it".

Throughout her filmography, Palomero has proven an exceptional ability to capture the emotional complexity of her characters. In both Las niñas, where she explores the turmoil of adolescence, and La maternal, which deals with the difficulties of motherhood at an early stage of life, the director follows an approach of contemplation and observation, which in Los Destellos reaches an even greater abstraction.

Palomero's films reflect a deep longing for answers to life's big questions, but her melancholic approach stays in the search, without reaching a conclusion.

Los Destellos is undoubtedly a beautiful and honest film that reflects the fears and voids of human experience, but those voids can only be fully filled through the truth of Christ.

Just as the filmmaker's characters wander in search of a clarity that never comes, we are faced with a question: what would we do if we knew the light that never goes out?

All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, seek that light that dispels the darkness. And while some find only fleeting sparkles, the believer finds in Christ the light that never fades the only one capable of giving meaning to pain and transforming fragility into hope.

Samuel Arjona, violinist, composer, and author.

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