A fiction pretending to be documentary, "Penúmbria" is a skilled and imaginative visual exercise. Penúmbria is also the name of an unidentified seaside town, here portrayed as a ghost town, abandoned after its inhabitants concluded that it would be impossible to continue living there. The film also becomes a documentary about architecture, about the action of humankind over nature, a succession of vignettes displaying abandoned buildings and lifeless streets as if they were ruins. While a voiceover explains the history of the place and its missing inhabitants, and desolation fills the space left behind, there is still room for a last gesture of humanity. (JA)