Dir. Carlos Reygadas. 2005, 98 mins. 35mm print courtesy of the director. In Spanish with English subtitles. With Marcos Hernández, Anapola Mushkadiz. A chauffeur seeks absolution for a horrific crime committed while having an affair with his boss’s daughter. For his second feature, Reygadas employed untrained actors for a provocative portrait of modern Mexico, using long takes and explicit sex scenes. The film abounds with ritual—from fellatio to military procession to religious pilgrimage—and heralds a new ceremonial, quasi-documentary cinema, inscribing its cosmic battle in the vulgarities of everyday life. “Reygadas is a serious moviemaker with a gift for creating new tonal values; I can’t think of anything quite like the baton of subjective point of view that passes between characters in Battle in Heaven, occasionally breaking into free-floating ellipses where the drifting symbiotic camera seems to be looking for a host body.” —Nick Pinkerton, Indiewire