Trail of Ashes

The search for the empress's daughter reunites two long lost brothers who grew up on opposite sides of a war and now must choose between family bonds and political alliances.

This is really two films - one good the other not so good. On the positive side: the production, the location and overall look of the movie is impressive. It can't have had much of a budget so the use made of local scenery, light and shade works well to create the working scenario for the rest of it. Now that, sadly, is the bit that lets it down. The story centres around the search for the daughter of the Empress who has been missing since her people were conquered by the "Lothos". That quest reunited two estranged brothers "Marco" (Hector Escudero Lobe) and "Silas" (Arturo Lizardi) but what doesn't really ensue now is much by way of action or adventure. It's a bit wordy (with some unnecessarily thick accents) with some rather ropey political intrigue, and at times the narrative jumps around the timeline just once to often to readily follow. It's really got the feel of a short story to it, and stretching it out for just shy of one hundred minutes proves just a bit too difficult for the assembled talent in front of and behind the camera. It is worth a watch for the ambience of the thing, but that's the height of it I'm afraid.