WALKING THE CAMINO
Director: Lydia B. Smith
Cast: Samantha Gilbert, Tomas Moreno, Paul Max, Antonio Dewey Castilla, Anne-Marie Misser, Jack Greenhalgh, Tatiana Jacquot-De Gouvion Saint Cyr, Cyrian Dielenseger, Annie O'Neil, Alexis Jacquot
Rating: (PG)
Three stars (out of five)
You start in St Jean Pied de Port in France, cross the border into Spain and travel from east to west to Santiago and maybe onwards to the coast.
Looking at the documentary Walking the Camino (Rialto), it seems a lovely stroll through bucolic Spain but that is the unfortunate glamorisation of the camera.
Everyone is quick to point out this pilgrimage is not for wimps.
It looks pretty but the land is steep and the weather is uncertain, veering from unpleasantly hot to annoyingly windy and then persistently wet.
It seems the one thing the region's weather never is, is just right.
Today's pilgrim has all the latest modern lightweight equipment, enormous packs full of it.
One of the funniest elements is watching people gradually shedding their gear as the pain of carrying it begins to outweigh the convenience of having it.
They travel bearing the pilgrim's passport but few of them have any religious motivation that would be recognised by the original pilgrims.
The film claims to follow six people but in truth we get to know six more and the most surprising element is that not one of them is an Aussie or a Kiwi.
Walking the Camino is interesting without being enthralling.
It is not a film to win you over by being better than you would imagine.
It just does what it says, takes you on a walk of the Camino.
- Christine Powley
