AllMovie

Patricia Cardoso's The Water Carrier is a modest and gentle tale brought to life by the director's vivid gift for visual storytelling. Cardoso viscerally captures the way in which the blind old man, Bernabe (Reinaldo Miravalles), uses his sense of touch and his instincts to guide him. Close-ups of Bernabe's gnarled hands feeling his way across a rough stone wall, or of Bernabe's face lighting up as he grasps at a few drops of liquid from a nearby waterfall as they cascade off a plant, tell the story simply and elegantly. Miravalles' performance captures the sense of satisfaction Bernabe gets from his difficult labor, which is light years away from the joy and wonder he feels upon regaining his sight, but is still an integral part of who he is. Cardoso shows an understanding of the inherent drama in class differences, and a skill at storytelling and the nuances of character that would later manifest themselves in her commercial feature debut, Real Women Have Curves.