Duck Season

There's a point in the evening when the sun has disappeared behind the city but there are still quite a few photons swirling around beneath our balcony thanks to the silvery surface of the Thames. Last night at this time I watched with interest as two formations of ducks sped towards each other, the aggressive quacking that commenced when they were still about six feet apart revealing that this was to be no joyful reunion. Reinforcements were soon splashing down nearby.

Naval showdowns of this sort are a rarity though. The oddest piece of duck behaviour I've witnessed in fifteen years of riverside life occurred when we looked out of the bedroom window in the small hours of one night and found the misty waters below covered in a great gathering of quackers. They didn't appear to be en-route to anywhere, they were just treading water to keep their position at the side of our building. It's never happened again.

We fetched some bread and tossed it out, and for the next few nights one duck kept coming back at the same ungodly hour, announcing its arrival with a faint, plaintive quack from the penumbra below.

I recently re-watched Temporada de Patos (Duck Season) with V on DVD, and now regret not including in on my recent top 20. Perhaps it's just a little too quaint and intimate for cinema viewing.

Flama's treatment of Ulises has tweaked V's conscience - she has vowed never again to give the Domino's man in Antigua the old 31 minutes treatment.

Perhaps the most hilarious part of the film is where Ulises outlines to Flama how he intends to make a killing selling parakeets. On many occasions in Guatemala I've had a verbal briefing on one or other of these flawed business plans, a phenomenon known locally as the negocio redondo.

I realise now that I hadn't previously caught onto the film's final gag, delivered in the scene which appears after the titles have rolled. "Para hacer un brownie tuvieron que hacer todo este tiradero?", complains Flama's mother munching one of the brownies. I'd forgotten that Rita had laced them with wacky-backy.

The DVD includes an excellent video for the Un Pato track sung by Natalia Laforcade. The website developed to support the film is also worth a visit.