Reflective Encounters

“Not a silent film, but a mute one, Lux Noctis is a piece of sparse, post-apocalyptic genre fare which leaves the viewer enough space to find the light themselves. Set in an isolated community of religious women, which we can infer is somewhere in Mexico, and importantly somewhere where environmental change is going to make survival very difficult. Writer/Director Damiana Acuña moves at a refreshingly slow pace through this milieu, introducing the viewer to the location, then the hierarchy, and then the horrors. Each revelation hits with a thud. 

Acuña’s use of crisp digital photography and austere editing choices will inevitably make viewers think of the folk horror trend that’s currently prevalent, particularly in the output of independent studio A24 in the United States. But Lux Noctis, far from chasing any fashionable trends, has a pleasingly dowdy approach to this matriarchal society that runs counter to any expectations for a girl-boss narrative. Indeed, this future society run by women takes on the strictly repressive air of a convent, where self-censorship and silence are the only choices on offer. Chilling, and all too resonant.”

— Ben Flanagan