VENICE: It was a spectacular clash of auteurs. Two years ago the writer, Guillermo Arriaga, was effectively banned from the Cannes film festival after falling out with the director of his screenplay for Babel. On Aug 29, there could be no bans: he came to Venice as a film director himself.

The question was, could Arriaga hack it after his public war of words with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who directed Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel? Certainly there was applause at the first screening of The Burning Plain – starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger – and measured praise from critics. It was a good, well-constructed, emotionally wringing debut.

Arriaga was in no mood to pour oil on the fire. “Alejandro is a great director. We made three beautiful films we both are very proud of.”

Arriaga and Inarritu put Mexican film on the international map with clever and complex multiple-narrative structures. But they began falling out after Inarritu felt Arriaga was taking too much credit. During filming of their third film, Babel, Arriaga was banned from the sets and told to stay away from Cannes.

Five days before the Oscars, the Mexican magazine Chilango published an open letter from Inarritu and other Babel collaborators in which they accused Arriaga of harbouring an “unjustified obsession with claiming the sole authorship of a film”.It went on: “You were not – and you have never allowed yourself to feel part of this team. Your declarations are a sad and very reductive end to this wonderful collective process that we have lived and are now celebrating.”

The Burning Plain is again multi-stranded. Theron as an emotionally bruised restaurant manager. Basinger a mother of four children embarking on an extramarital affair. The strands gradually come together.

Arriaga said the story had been in his head for 15 years and came from his interest in nature and the human condition. “I’ve always been driven to the desert, I think the landscape itself influences people.

This movie was based on the four elements, water, earth, wind and fire and using them I wanted to explore why sometimes people are damaged.”

Asked about his narrative style Arriaga said: “We never tell stories in a linear way, we always tell them in a decomposed way. If you ask how did I become a director, I will not begin at the beginning, I will talk about my grandfather, my trip to Italy and so on. That’s the way we tell stories in real life.”

Basinger was absent from Venice but the other cast members praised her commanding performance. One of the younger stars, Jennifer Lawrence, said it had been like watching Monet painting. “She’s so focused and she’s smart and she’s nice. She would stay late and be off camera just for me.”

The Burning Plain is one of

five US movies in for the Golden Bear – a competition most observers believe has yet to come alive.

—Dawn/Guardian News Service