In the central Mexican highlands lies the paradise of passions, which the married couple Juan (Carlos Reygadas) and Esther (Natalia López) created fifteen years ago and have kept alive ever since.

Mighty mountain ranges in the distance make the horizon seem almost unlimited.

In front of it their nature, mostly without fences, extensive pastureland, reservoirs, clay pits, as if made for summer battles of the little girls and boys, forests with secluded hollows, in which the young people have their first sexual experiences and go through emotional confusion.

The bull farm, on which the - world-famous - writer and farmer Juan and his wife, familiar with creatures as a veterinarian, let their children grow up in great freedom, is a magnet for many people. Farm workers, cowboys, friends and relatives, artist clique. At the beginning, the landowners and spouses train bloody bullfighting as an art of teamwork. Here a dream of a free world encounter seems to have come true. Country roads lead the self-sufficient out to Mexico City with its architecture, with cultural events and the connection to the passage of time of civilization. Both nature and artificiality remain fruitfully related in Carlos Reygada's film “Our Time” (“Nuestro Tiempo”, 2018), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, as long as communication functions as a means of connection.The expulsion from paradise begins with speechlessness as a result of an irritation of passion.

Nature and marriage

Arte is showing “Our Time”, a huge, almost three-hour film epic in widescreen format, which explores scenic research between self-reference and general philosophical reflection on the nature of marriage and feelings, in the original Spanish with German subtitles. The strangeness of the language heard - if one is not at home in Spanish - is not limited to an idiom alone. Phil (Phil Burgers), hired to break in the horses, speaks English. Understanding, even love, is also told as a problem of linguistic diversity. Juan, the jack-of-all-trades in self-realization, seems equally at home in all languages. The fact that he and Esther have an open relationship, that she sleeps with Phil, is a matter of course for Juan in their marriage. But here, too, there are irritations. Soon it will be seenthat the limit of his tolerance is the limit of their secrecy. Esther changes, withdraws, no longer shares her experiences with him. And Juan reacts with probing questions, with reproaches, jealousy, with spying and tries to pull Phil into his own passion play as an accomplice of the open relationship. Esther feels betrayed twice. Seemingly simple for years - everyone sleeps with everyone without it meaning anything - is becoming complicated.Seemingly simple for years - everyone sleeps with everyone without it meaning anything - is becoming complicated.Seemingly simple for years - everyone sleeps with everyone without it meaning anything - is becoming complicated.

Not only the book comes from the main actor Carlos Reygadas, but also the staging, which charges every attitude towards nature with existential significance. A bull gone wild kills a mule that cannot escape because the workers have harnessed it to the feeder cart. Young cops fight each other on the edge of a slope with no sense of danger. Images crawl from the driver's seat of a car towards the engine and on to the wheel suspension as if through machine entrails. During the premiere of a timpani symphony in Mexico City, the image details follow the composer and the furious conductor and only come to a standstill on a modern stained glass work of art (camera Diego García, Adrián Durazo). Symbolism wherever one is directed to look.Increased ego pain and the love obsession of the character Juan.

While at the beginning the children seem to grow out of the clay of the play pit and in the youngsters the desire and stealth without poetry sublimations lead to love affliction, the independence agreements of Juan and Esther prove to be a lie of intellectual comfort.

"Our time" shows painful scenes of an open marriage with a consequence that arises from the conflict between nature and notions of civilization, concepts of freedom and loyalty.

For those who are interested: The fact that Reygadas and Natalia López are also a couple in real life and that their children play their children here may make “Our Time” even more exciting.

Auto-fiction meets the symbolism of nature.

This film looks best on a very large screen.

Our time

runs at 10:35 p.m. at Arte.