Director: Igor Legarreta
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
Filmed in the Basque language, All the Moons is a beautifully shot film and it certainly didn’t go in the direction I thought it might as I read the description of the film on Shudder. Indeed, it became apparent that (despite the streaming service it was on) this was far from a horror film. That’s not to decry the film, after all there are plenty of non-horror vampire flicks but, given its streaming home, the lack of horror might befuddle some on initial view.
The film starts in 1876 during the third Carlist War – one of a series of Civil Wars in Spain. The narration is by a young girl – who is later named Amaia (Haizea Carneros) – who talks of first the darkness and then the lights – reporting on the explosions in the night. She is in what we can guess to be an orphanage, run by nuns, and the children are taken into the church as the battle rages outside – the nuns leading the children in prayer. Our narrator walks off to look at a picture on an angel when the chapel takes a hit. The children and nuns are killed, she is pinned under a fallen beam, her legs crushed.
She sees a cloaked figure (the cloaks, it transpires, are thick blankets). The injured girl asks the woman if she is an angel and says that she doesn’t want to die. She awakens away from the place, her legs a bloody mess. The woman, only referred to as Mother (Itziar Ituño), asks if she really wants to be healed and, when the girl ascents, she passes her a bowl with what is clearly blood in it and has her drink. When she wakes again she notices her veins on her wrist are pronounced. She stands and moves to open a canvas over the window and is stopped. It is dangerous to go out during the day, says Mother, and mentions the soldiers.
There are others hiding in the dark and one in particular does not seem pleased that Mother has chosen this child. As night falls, they are to go out – leaving the girl behind – following the lights. She follows anyway and sees one of the figures feeding from a fallen soldier’s wrist and it is clear that it is the light of battle they follow so that they might feed from the dying. The girl is told that she too may save someone but she should chose carefully as she will only ever be able to save one – meaning that these vampires can only turn one person.
However, soldiers raid the vampires’ lair, causing them to run into the sun, covered in blankets. Some are burned by the soldiers or exposed to the sun. The girl and mother run into the woods but the girl runs into a tree and falls, losing her blanket and tumbling off a cliff edge into a ravine. Mother is convinced she has been killed but we see, as night falls, the girl emerge from the snow. She heads back to the lair but no-one returns and eventually finds her way to a natural shelter, killing a weasel as she goes in and partaking of its blood.
Ten years pass and the girl is living like a feral creature, painting moons on a cave wall (the film’s title comes from the fact that the Mother suggested they would have all the moons together). One day she starts pushing her hand into the sun and holding it there, the light causing the skin to blister before she tugs it back. She peels the blistering away to reveal new skin. She stops painting moons and starts painting suns and, eventually (and with no explanation other than us see her exposing herself over and over), sunlight no longer bothers her.
She heads out from the cave and, eventually, sees a farm house and heads to it. She gets caught in a wolf trap and is rescued by the farmer, Candido (Josean Bengoetxea). Although she is strangely uninjured and does not bleed from what wound there is, he takes pity on the girl and tries to find out where she has come from. When there are no clues, he decides to adopt her, having lost his wife during childbirth and, later, his daughter to an accident – he gives the girl the name Amaia. Of course, her strange behaviours, along with a rash of attacks on animals, cause concern in the nearby village and with the local priest…
The film follows her time with Candido and beyond, with the pace being languid. I mentioned it is not a horror and the film fails to even offer moments of horror, rather it offers drama. Scenes of war and the reaction of the church could have been jumping off points for moments of horror (beyond simply playing the horror from her vampirism) but this prefers to study character, emotion and relationships. It is beautifully shot and, for a young actor, Haizea Carneros does a fine job of carrying the film. I expected the relationship with Mother to be the primary focus but, actually, it is the story of her time with Candido that proves to be the core of the story. The pace might be too slow for some but it is a class production. 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon US
On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon UK
 |
| in the orphanage |
The film starts in 1876 during the third Carlist War – one of a series of Civil Wars in Spain. The narration is by a young girl – who is later named Amaia (Haizea Carneros) – who talks of first the darkness and then the lights – reporting on the explosions in the night. She is in what we can guess to be an orphanage, run by nuns, and the children are taken into the church as the battle rages outside – the nuns leading the children in prayer. Our narrator walks off to look at a picture on an angel when the chapel takes a hit. The children and nuns are killed, she is pinned under a fallen beam, her legs crushed.
 |
| veins pronounced |
She sees a cloaked figure (the cloaks, it transpires, are thick blankets). The injured girl asks the woman if she is an angel and says that she doesn’t want to die. She awakens away from the place, her legs a bloody mess. The woman, only referred to as Mother (Itziar Ituño), asks if she really wants to be healed and, when the girl ascents, she passes her a bowl with what is clearly blood in it and has her drink. When she wakes again she notices her veins on her wrist are pronounced. She stands and moves to open a canvas over the window and is stopped. It is dangerous to go out during the day, says Mother, and mentions the soldiers.
 |
| Haizea Carneros as Amaia |
There are others hiding in the dark and one in particular does not seem pleased that Mother has chosen this child. As night falls, they are to go out – leaving the girl behind – following the lights. She follows anyway and sees one of the figures feeding from a fallen soldier’s wrist and it is clear that it is the light of battle they follow so that they might feed from the dying. The girl is told that she too may save someone but she should chose carefully as she will only ever be able to save one – meaning that these vampires can only turn one person.
 |
| soldiers attack |
However, soldiers raid the vampires’ lair, causing them to run into the sun, covered in blankets. Some are burned by the soldiers or exposed to the sun. The girl and mother run into the woods but the girl runs into a tree and falls, losing her blanket and tumbling off a cliff edge into a ravine. Mother is convinced she has been killed but we see, as night falls, the girl emerge from the snow. She heads back to the lair but no-one returns and eventually finds her way to a natural shelter, killing a weasel as she goes in and partaking of its blood.
 |
| Amaia in water |
Ten years pass and the girl is living like a feral creature, painting moons on a cave wall (the film’s title comes from the fact that the Mother suggested they would have all the moons together). One day she starts pushing her hand into the sun and holding it there, the light causing the skin to blister before she tugs it back. She peels the blistering away to reveal new skin. She stops painting moons and starts painting suns and, eventually (and with no explanation other than us see her exposing herself over and over), sunlight no longer bothers her.
 |
| the priest |
She heads out from the cave and, eventually, sees a farm house and heads to it. She gets caught in a wolf trap and is rescued by the farmer, Candido (Josean Bengoetxea). Although she is strangely uninjured and does not bleed from what wound there is, he takes pity on the girl and tries to find out where she has come from. When there are no clues, he decides to adopt her, having lost his wife during childbirth and, later, his daughter to an accident – he gives the girl the name Amaia. Of course, her strange behaviours, along with a rash of attacks on animals, cause concern in the nearby village and with the local priest…
 |
| villager reaction |
The film follows her time with Candido and beyond, with the pace being languid. I mentioned it is not a horror and the film fails to even offer moments of horror, rather it offers drama. Scenes of war and the reaction of the church could have been jumping off points for moments of horror (beyond simply playing the horror from her vampirism) but this prefers to study character, emotion and relationships. It is beautifully shot and, for a young actor, Haizea Carneros does a fine job of carrying the film. I expected the relationship with Mother to be the primary focus but, actually, it is the story of her time with Candido that proves to be the core of the story. The pace might be too slow for some but it is a class production. 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon US
On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon UK
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