A film review: "Las hijas de Abril" [2017, Mexico]

Wishing you all a very happy 2018!

 














Michel Franco is among the leading lights of Mexican cinema working today. Franco follows up on his impressive 2015 drama 'Chronic' with an equally devious and shocking family drama "Las hijas de Abril" (Eng. Title: April's Daughters).

The film begins with Clara (Joanna Larequi) preparing dinner seemingly unperturbed by sounds of lovemaking emanating from the room next door. When it ends and Clara goes out to make a phone call, her teenage sister and very pregnant Valeria (Ana Valeria Becerril) emerges sweaty and famished, followed by her equally young boyfriend Mateo (Enrique Arrizon). Clara was calling her 'Spanish' mum Abril (Emma Suárez) to inform her of Valeria's pregnancy - something Valeria hadn’t been quite keen on telling herself, and we’ll begin to appreciate her initial reluctance through the course of the film.

Following their parents' divorce, the sisters have been living in the family's vacation home, largely keeping to themselves, but the anticipated arrival of a new member into the household had forced Clara to seek out their mum for help. Abril turns up, unexpectedly for Valeria, to take control over matters, with what by initial signs appear to be a genuine concern for the welfare of her daughters and the yet-to-be-born child.

With Valeria struggling with the rigours of motherhood after baby Karen is born, it is often left to Abril's resourcefulness, experience, and initiative to cope with Karen's matters. Valeria momentarily takes a back seat and a naive and clueless Mateo, whose parents have already rejected their bastard granddaughter, succumbs to Abril's whims and schemes, which take on sinister dimensions.

After Abril puts Karen up for adoption without Valeria's permission, we begin to see her transform, with little fanfare or notice, from a caring mother and grandmother into a selfish, narcissistic, and amoral bitch intent on wrecking the lives the very ones she's supposed to care and protect. Valeria will be forced to grow up, swiftly, to reclaim her child by exhibiting the single-mindedness her mother is already known for...

Michel Franco's little gem was one of the few films that truly impressed me at the BFI London Film Festival this year and I'd be truly surprised if it doesn't go on to bag a few more awards. The great storyteller that he is, Franco's off-kilter narrative succeeds in using seemingly austere imagery to deceive and challenge his audience by posing inconvenient questions. The film's title itself - 'April's Daughter', could more tellingly be named 'Valeria's Mother', because the film is mostly about the mother, played with utter conviction by Emma Suárez - she has us glued to proceedings no matter what we feel about the character she's playing. Equally impressive is debutante Ana Valeria Becerril who plays the young teenage mother. Needless to say, the film is Highly Recommended Viewing..!

 

The Nudity: Ana Valeria Becerril
A heavily pregnant Valeria enters the room naked to help herself to a snack while overhearing her sister Clara talking to their mum over phone. The scene is also surprising in that it is also the opening scene of the film. She's also later seen partially naked and sleeping on the sofa when Abril visits.



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A film review: "El Clan" [2015 Argentina]

Pablo Trapero's films have always been gutsy and raw on the outside, with just the right amount of melancholy to reflect on the complexities of human nature within. His recent drama, "El Clan" [Eng. Title: The Clan] is loosely based on the true story of the Puccio family in Eighties Argentina.












It was the time immediately after the end to dictatorship in Argentina, when Arquímedes Puccio (Guillermo Francella), a retired intelligence officer of the former military junta, ran a lucrative kidnapping-for-ransom enterprise from his own home situated in an affluent neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. To the outside world, he was a stoic and hardworking surfing paraphernalia store owner and a proud family man, with a devoted wife (Lili Popovich), two daughters and three sons.

His was, for all intents and purposes, a model Argentinian family, inspiring a scarred nation trying to emerge from a troubled past. The eldest son, Alejandro (Peter Lanzani), was also a talented rugby player. But behind closed doors, the entire family was privy and sometimes even complicit in Arquímedes's chilling venture, during which kidnapped victims were held and tortured in a room upstairs. Without raising any concerns, perhaps because of their inability to do so, they took turns carrying meals upstairs and tried to drown out the screams by playing loud music. For the wife, it was perhaps just like any other business - a means to support the family.

Arquímedes always seemed to be in control; his calm demeanour convincingly masking the menacing ruthlessness with which he went about his work. After collecting the ransom money, the victims were killed in cold blood and their bodies disposed off. It's as if he never wanted to stop what he was doing during the military regime. And he had people protecting him - erstwhile colleagues, still working in the establishment. His house of cards will nevertheless come crashing down when the rules of the game change following a change in circumstances...

Trapero had made yet another gripping thriller with panache and is ably assisted by the main actors, particularly Guillermo Francella who plays Arquímedes Puccio, the head of the Clan, with great conviction. With impressive cinematography and crisp editing, the film oozes class. However, if I have to nitpick, I find that the screenplay had failed to answer some important questions concerning the motive behind Arquímedes's crimes, the backstory for authorities initially turning a blind eye towards them, and also why his family, with otherwise impeccable values, would tolerate what was going on.

For Argentinians perhaps, the story of the Puccio family is legend, and they may not need help with these questions, but as a foreigner, a few puzzles remain after watching the film. Thankfully, Trapero had set about discussing something more than just the story, like moral dilemmas, family loyalties, and such - so there is value in the film despite the screenplay shortcomings. The film won a Goya for best Iberoamerican motion picture, and a Silver Lion at Venice for best direction - well deserved, and reasons enough to make it Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com Link [DVD + Blu-ray]

 

The Nudity: Stefanía Koessl
There's very brief nudity from Stefanía Koessl who play's Alejandro's (entirely innocent) love interest, Mónica. They make out in the car in this darkly lit scene, and her screams of pleasure is inter-cut with screams of a different kind from the Puccio household.



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Love in the time of apocalypse: “El desierto” [2013, Argentina]

It's good to be back, even if briefly. Having been force-fed a diet of Hollywood over the past few months during my infrequent flights - yes, there must be a worldwide conspiracy to trap people into watching a whole bunch of American 'family' films, my interest in film had somewhat begun to wane. Besides, I had other things to attend to during my visits. I'm happy to declare though, that German-born writer-director Christoph Behl has successfully reinforced my interest in film with his brilliant début feature, the romantic drama "El desierto" [Eng. Title: The Desert].








There's a zombie apocalypse going on, and for all intents and purposes, the only survivors left in town are our three protagonists - Jonathan (William Prociuk), Axel (Lautaro Delgado), and Ana (Victoria Almeida). Holed up in a house with improvised fortifications, the armed trio stave off occasional zombie advances that the audience don't get to see. Ana records their zombie 'kills' by giving each of them a classical Greek name. Soon, she will run out of names to use.

Easygoing Jonathan and organised Ana have been a couple ever since she was rescued by the men during one of their scavenging missions. The trio have agreed to abide by a set of rules and code of conduct that they created, one of which was to record their thoughts and feelings in the privacy of a video room. The recorded tapes were meant to be put away in a sealed trunk, but were nevertheless regularly pried open and seen by the others. "If we had met in another place, in another time, in another story - perhaps we could've been together", Ana confesses to Axel in one of her video diaries. But the intense Axel couldn't stop coveting her; he watches her from afar and leers at her body when she sleeps in Jonathan's arms in the bed next to his.

The protagonists, while protecting themselves from outside harm, will eventually find living together increasingly difficult amid the tensions in their relationship. Axel wants to move out - he tattoos images of flies all over his body, intending to leave when there is no more space left to tattoo. Jonathan doesn't want Axel to leave even though he is aware of his desire for Ana, and will go to extraordinary lengths to make him stay - whether it is by conceding defeat in board games, or by facilitating Axel to secretly gaze at Ana's naked body. Things will only get complicated after the boys capture and bring home a 'live' zombie as part of a 'truth or dare' game...

What is fascinating about this film is its focus on the protagonists' characterisation - after all, isn't this supposed to be a 'genre' film! Director Behl invests considerable screen time in building his characters using observation and video confessions, and the simmering tension below the surface is revealed through clever camera, and sound - especially the incessant buzzing of flies. This, combined with the searing heat and sterling performances, elevates it to a higher level of film-making.

Importantly, the film raises questions on ideas we take for granted - that humans would do anything and everything to preserve their species. It's at its subversive best when it persistently shatters the notion that we'd all, given trying circumstances, altruistically do our utmost to maintain the human race. At once raw, claustrophobic, moving, darkly funny, and steamingly sexy, the thought-provoking film challenges us to look at ourselves as we really are, rather than how we'd like to be. There's a lot going on with several issues left for the viewer to draw his/her own conclusions. It's possible that the film might even be considered a cinematic masterpiece of sorts in the future - reason enough for it to be Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD [PAL] | Amazon.com DVD [NTSC] | Amazon.com [Instant]

 

The Nudity: Victoria Almeida and Lautaro Delgado
Four scenes feature brief nudity; the first three feature Victoria Almeida where her character is not aware that she is being watched. The final instance is of Lautaro Delgado's fully tattooed character examining himself in mirror.





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"Mujeres infieles" [2004 Chile]: "Orgasm is a fundamental human right!"

So declares psychologist Eva Soler (María Izquierdo) during a TV talk show in Rodrigo Ortuzar Lynch's début feature "Mujeres infieles" [Eng. Title: Unfaithful Women]. Her statement is aimed at furthering the film's intentions, which is to open up a mainstream discussion on why 62.5% of Chilean women, according to a recent study, are unfaithful to their partner.











Whilst Eva Soler is the film's voice of reason, it is the characters that interact with her at various levels who build the loosely interconnected comedy drama. By juggling timelines and filling in details when needed, the film keeps us engaged and entertained for the most part.

The film begins with Cecilia (María José Prieto), the host of the aforementioned talk show, telling her husband over phone that she's having a late 'production meeting', only to enter a hotel suite with her lover Alberto (Cristián Campos), also her boss. Their conversations will reveal the dynamics of their relationship.

A terrible accident occurs in their suite that night, which will draw Cecilia's colleague and rival Mario (Daniel Alcaíno) to the scene of the tragedy whilst reporting live for TV with camera and crew. While Cecilia survives with minor injuries, she's left to face the music alone on her way to recovery, from husband and the wider public.

We watch a parallel story unfold in the affairs of Cecilia's confidante Carola (Viviana Rodríguez). She'd been secretly having sexual relations with her grown-up stepson Cristián (Benjamín Vicuña). They're in love, but don't know how to break it to the person who'll be the most concerned about it, husband Alvaro (Mateo Iribarren).

Indifference from clichéd stereotype of a husband Pedro (Remigio Remedy) will encourage Virginia's (Gabriela Aguilera) to develop sexual fantasies involving a hunky gardener, that'll also usher in her very first orgasm. After a chat with her psychologist (Eva Soler), she'll learn to live out her orgasmic fantasies whilst remaining 'faithful' to Pedro, using a 'responsive' sex toy that happily never watches football.

Cristina (Sifrid Alegria), a friend of Virginia, first meets Spanish-return Roberta (Lucia Jiménez) at the airport and is instantly smitten by her charm and sexual charisma, leading her to experiment with something she'd never considered before. Thrown amongst these characters are a pair of sleazy detectives whose antics are mainly there to make the film's taboo topic more palatable to a mainstream audience.

The film, whilst hinting at a changing society, stops short of making any in-depth analysis - it's essentially nuggets of wisdom that's sugar-coated with layers of entertainment. But you won't be disappointed if like me, it's mainly the sugar rush that you were after.

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Viviana Rodríguez, Benjamín Vicuña, María José Prieto, and Cristián Campos
The highlight is the 'smoking' hotel sex scene that also features frontal nudity from the delectable María José Prieto and a rather athletic Cristián Campos - Cecilia undresses whilst delivering a weather report loaded with double endentre, while Alberto pays dearly for a bad habit afterwards (sorry about the mild spoiler, guys). There is also a long-ish but rather awkward sex scene between Viviana Rodríguez and Benjamín Vicuña (the latter - bless him, can't act if his next meal depended on it).



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A review: "Una Noche" [2012 Cuba, USA, UK]

 

Lucy Mulloy has made a stirring directorial feature film début through the Cuban drama "Una Noche" [Eng. Title: One Night]. Set in Havana for the most part, it narrates events during a momentous day and night in the lives of three young people - Raúl, best friend Elio, and his twin sister Lila.

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Raúl (Dariel Arrechaga), an apprentice in the kitchen of a posh hotel, is a frustrated and angry young man - frustrated about his mother's terminal illness, and angry that there's little he could do to help her in a city that functions at its own pace and logic. During the course of the day, he'll end up being pursued by police for a crime that he wasn't responsible for. He believes the only option available is fleeing Cuba, that very night, and presses friend and co-worker Elio (Javier Núñez Florián) to help him build a raft out of materials they could rummage, to sail the ocean and hopefully reach Miami.

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Best friend since childhood, Elio is also secretly in love with Raúl and will do anything for him. Elio however has sister Lila (Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre) to think about - the one person in his otherwise dysfunctional family that he deeply cares for. After stealing food from the kitchen for Raúl's journey, he too will now have to consider joining his friend. When Lila discovers Elio's plans, she insists that they take her with them. All three, for different reasons, suddenly feel compelled to leave everything behind and venture on a perilous journey where their chances of survival, if any, are very slim...

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In realising the film's premise, Ms. Mulloy has managed to paint a vibrant portrait of Havana that few from outside get to see - of ordinary people and the youth - their enterprise, dreams, and frustrations. It is about a city and its people in the cusp of change, where practical necessities could no longer get in the way of their aspirations, and whose natural ingenuity is tested to the limit at every turn. The film's imaginative shot-selections and editing make their scenes burst into screen with raw nervous energy.

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To learn that none among the film's crew had worked on a full-length feature before was a revelation. Ms. Mulloy herself began this project as part of her thesis for film school at NYU - even if the idea to make a film about Havana had long been on her mind. From a short film, it evolved into a full-length feature, thanks also to a tutor and mentor no less than Spike Lee himself. Mr. Lee's influence (particularly his early work) is certainly noticeable in some scenes, but I believe she might have also been inspired by older films such as Soy Cuba. The film is however entirely original and it carries a sensibility all of her own. For those interested, here's an interview with a charming and very down-to-earth Ms. Mulloy, about the making of her film.

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Another feature of the film is its casting. In exclusively using non-actors, the director had taken a leaf from Italian Neorealism in preferring authenticity over professional performances to portray her characters - the three main actors fill the role more than adequately, and it was a joy listening to their accent with the distinct Cuban twang, even if that meant I having to rely on subtitles for the most part. Watching the film is like re-experiencing something fleeting, exotic and invigorating, like youth itself. It's a gem lovingly crafted with ingenuity and improvisation - it is Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC] | Amazon.com Instant Video

 

The Nudity: From a few.
Not often have I drawn a blank in identifying actors appearing nude in a film that's being reviewed - we have an exception here. Few characters are addressed by their names and all appearing nude are first-time actors - impossible to identify unless those involved come forward. However, there are at least four scenes that include brief nudity, and featured in one of them is an authentic and pretty transsexual.



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A brief review: "Rouge amargo" [2012 Argentina]

Gustavo Cova's crime thriller "Rouge amargo" [Eng. Title: Bitter Red Lips] treads a path well-worn by others trying to emulate Hollywood, but falls way short of being spoken in the same length as 'Jason Bourne'.

A candidate running for Congress is murdered in a hotel room when he's with favourite prostitute Cyntia (Mariela Vitale, credited as 'Emme'). The hit-man tries to get rid of Cyntia too but is prevented by Julián (Luciano Cáceres) after she escapes from the room in the nude and asks for his help. An alleged ex-convict, Julián, along with Cyntia will become 'natural' suspects for the police after the hit-man escapes from the scene. Could the candidate be killed for political reasons? Thrown into their midst is an investigative journalist and the officer trying to apprehend the suspects to solve his case...

There are several problems with this film, right from the screenplay to the numerous holes in the plot, not to mention totally irrational decisions that some of the characters make, that stretches credibility. The performances are passable but the direction falters at crucial junctures in the film. The unnecessarily shaky camera work and ridiculous editing put me off right from the start, and unnoticed half decent performances go wasted in the process. It's a shame that Emme (Mariela Vitale) - a talented actress from films such as Eva y Lola and El niño pez finds herself associated with this rather mediocre production. Short-sighted 'genre' films such as these tend to be forgotten very quickly, and raise the question whether they really need to be made in the first place.

 

The Nudity: Emme (Mariela Vitale)
The actress briefly appears nude in a few scenes - first in a hotel corridor in the midst of a full-blown battle between Julián and the hit-man. Later, Julán and her character have sex in a scene as poorly executed as the rest of the film. Finally, we're shown a few frames of topless nudity from Emme in a shower scene, inter-cut with flashbacks.



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A review: "Heli" [2013 Mexico]

Amat Escalante is no stranger to controversy. One of the bad boys of the Mexican New Wave, his films, alongside that of close friend Carlos Reygadas (who incidentally is also often his producer), provoke and shock audiences through searing observations of human behaviour that's more closely associated with the likes of Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont. But it's the uncompromising visual audacity, and the common - often banal nature of his subjects that set his films apart. The unexpected brutality evidenced in his earlier works such like Sangre (2005) and Los Bastardos (2008) would ruffle even the jaded of viewers.

Escalante's latest offering "Heli", is a contemporary drug-war drama set somewhere in northern Mexico. Heli (Armando Espitia) is a young lad living with a family consisting of his father, twelve year old sister Estella (Andrea Vergara), young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and their six-month old baby. Working for a nearby car assembly plant, Heli is by no means rich, but he gets by, and his family is also generally happy. School-going Estella is in love with seventeen year old special forces cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacio). And it is Beto's poor judgement on one occasion that'll turn the family's world into hell. In hoping to finance his elopement with Estella, Beto steals a significant amount of police-confiscated cocaine and hides it in the water tank on top of Heli's house. Upon discovering it, Heli impulsively destroys the stash because he felt that was the right thing to do. But how wrong was he..!

It would trigger a chain of horrific events, part of which will also make up the film's opening sequence, when we see a gagged and beaten up Beto being lynched from a footbridge. There is an extended torture scene that precedes it - shown halfway into the film, where Beto and Heli are strung in the living room of a family home and first beaten with what looks like a cricket bat (didn't know they play cricket in Mexico). The kids, interrupted from their Wii, join in by taking turns with the bat while being watched with mild disapproval from the kitchen by their mother. After the beatings, Beto's genitals are dowsed in petrol and set alight. The banal domesticity of the surroundings and the casual savagery presented within it is what makes the scene all the more shocking.

Heli is however spared a similar fate - he is allowed to limp back home, but his nightmare has hardly ended - his sister too had been picked up but has not yet returned. He looses his job, and his relationship with Sabrina hits rough weather. Added to his misery is the corruption among the police investigating his father's murder and Estella's kidnapping - with one of them, a supposedly sympathetic female detective, even demanding sexual favours from him. His wife and child were lucky to have been out of town on that fateful day, and the scene when Sabrina returns home with the baby to find it ransacked with a trail of blood on the floor, is one of the very few scenes where Escalante shows any sympathy towards his audience - the scene is also classically shot.

Otherwise, the film is relentlessly unforgiving, and even though the end leaves us with a ray of hope for the family that we've come to care about, it is a damning indictment of a country fighting for its soul, with a corrupt establishment in collusion with drug cartels. While this may just be one aspect of Mexican life, confined to certain parts of the country, the director nevertheless raises some probing questions about the state of affairs, and asks why 'normal' life should remain a bit of a lottery for some people who're not even involved in the drugs trade. Escalante won the best director's award at Cannes, and the film was also nominated for Palme d'Or. It is also Mexico's official entry for the forthcoming Academy Awards. Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Linda González, Reina Torres, and Armando Espitia
As Sabrina, Linda González is briefly nude during a shower scene, and in two sex scenes that follow, one of which also involves nudity from Armando Espitia as protagonist Heli. Reina Torres plays police detective Maribel, who in a scene seeks sexual favours from Heli in a none too subtle way.



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A brief review: "El lado oscuro del corazón 2" [Argentina, Spain 2001]

Eliseo Subiela follows-up on the romantic drama he made a decade earlier with a sequel - "El lado oscuro del corazón 2" [Eng. Title: The Dark Side of the Heart 2]. He catches up with the same protagonist after ten years - Oliverio (played by a same, ten year older Darío Grandinetti), searching yet again for a woman who can 'fly', after the one he had who did - Ana (Sandra Ballesteros), takes flight literally to live with her daughter in Spain.

Frustrated at not finding a 'bird' - he could only manage 'amphibians' (Florencia Sabatella) and 'glow-worms' (Carolina Peleritti), Oliverio decides to go looking for Ana in Spain, and catches up with her in Barcelona. They're glad to have found each other, but alas, couldn't get off the ground when it mattered. Apparently they'd been looking back at their relationship rather than forward, 'Time' - in the form of a biker dressed in black reminds him. Oliverio will see the poster of trapeze artist Alejandra (Ariadna Gil) in flight, and falls madly in love. He pursues her through the country and eventually catches up in Sitges with the help of Time's free ride.

Over these years, 'Death' (Nacha Guevara) hasn't given up chasing Oliverio either, relentlessly following him wherever he goes. Since he can't shake her off, he takes her in his stride and even starts treating her as a friend. After meeting a pretty but suicidal Alejandra, Oliverio will discover that the trapeze artist too is stalked by her own bolero-serenading 'Death' (Manuel Bandera). Oliverio has his work cut-out - he'll have figure out a way of cheating his and Alejandra's 'Death', but for that he needs to first win the heart of Alejandra - no easy task under the circumstances...

Subiela continues his esoteric meanderings from the earlier instalment with his typical poetic license to tell yet another love story, elegantly and in a feel-good manner. Non-pretentious while also trying to be artistic, it may be commercial heart-warming cinema, Argentinian-style - but it is still way better than what Hollywood churns out these days. Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]
Mine is an anamorphic PAL version that's not in stock at the time of posting.

 

The Nudity: Florencia Sabatella, Carolina Peleritti, Sandra Ballesteros, and Ariadna Gil
For some reason, the first two names above are spelt differently in IMDB. In any case, the actresses appear briefly nude during their respective scenes as two of Oliverio's exotic catches. Sandra Ballesteros even manages to look sexier than she did ten years earlier during a nude scene, and beautiful Ariadna Gil also appears briefly nude in one scene. There is also a voluptuous actress (uncredited) appearing in Oliverio's dream, after he fails to 'perform' in bed on one occasion.



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A brief review: "Ella" [2010 Peru]

It's unfortunate that I had to start an important Latin American director's filmography in the blog with a totally forgettable film - I'd wanted to review Francisco J. Lombardi's most recent film "Ella" [Eng. Title: She] before getting into his rightly awarded and famous earlier political and social dramas.

Ella - well she has a name too - Luna (Patricia Garza), is actually about her much older husband and painter Alfredo (Paul Vega), and his choice of actions/reactions after she decides to leave him for a lover that he wasn't aware of. Alberto has been going through a creative crisis and is under pressure to complete a series of paintings for a forthcoming show. It is nevertheless also plain to see that he'd been treating Luna, who's also his model, largely as an object of desire and obsession - capturing with camera her every movement in the house when she's not posing for him, and memorising her every physical feature, moles and warts included - he'd apparently counted twenty seven moles on her body. When Alfredo tracks down and entraps the lover she'd wanted to elope with (Rómulo Assereto), he'll discover that they both have more in common than merely desiring the same woman...

A cuckolded husband and his wife's lover getting to know each other and bonding over their common object of desire is as good a premise as any for creating drama - it is intriguing even, but it is in the execution - particularly the screenplay and rather pedestrian performances that the film is let down - it resembles the rough cut of an unfinished film or a nondescript TV drama than a major director's work. More worryingly, the film is not even being ironic when it seemingly rewards men for their selfish motives - artistic struggle or not, and it is always depressing to see a good plot wasted with poor screenplay and characterisation. The film's title too should have probably been El cuerpo de Luna - because we don't get to see a person - only her body, whether alive or dead. But for those still interested, a DVD order link can be found below.

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]

 

 

The Nudity: Patricia Garza
Cute Mexican actress Patricia Garza appears only in a few scenes, and she's nude in most of them with very few words to say, and we hardly get to know her character (Luna) any better, even after the credits start rolling.



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Celeste Cid in "El amigo alemán" [2012 Germany, Argentina]

Jeanine Meerapfel's "El amigo Alemán" [English Title: The German Friend] is a romantic drama centred around the daughter of German émigrés, and set against the backdrop of some turbulent decades of Argentina's recent history.

Storyline:
Young Sulamit's Jewish parents are concerned about her growing friendship with their neighbour Friedrich, also from Germany, owing to his father's secret Nazi-past. But despite their objections, Sulamit (Celeste Cid) and Friedrich (Max Riemelt) will fall in love. When Friedrich learns about his father, he disowns him and travels to Germany, hoping to unearth his father's misdeeds. Sulamit follows him shortly after, but is disappointed to see that Friedrich had become a prominent member of a left wing student group, affording little time for their relationship to grow. When Argentina comes under dictatorship, Friedrich travels home to join the insurgents, and is promptly taken prisoner by authorities after a bungled operation. Sulamit had tried to move on with life, but realises that she couldn't love anyone the way she does Friedrich, and waits...

The film is reasonably well-made, and even though there have been several memorable films made about the dictatorship years, what sets this apart is the Jewish émigré angle - and their point of view.

 

The Nudity: Celeste Cid and Max Riemelt
There is brief nudity from Celeste Cid and Max Riemelt in a couple of scenes, and one more of Sulamit when she befriends German lecturer Michael (Benjamin Sadler).



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Greisy Mena in "La vida precoz y breve de Sabina Rivas" [2012 Mexico]

Mexican filmmakers never seem to grow tired of their country's infamous gangs - Luis Mandoki's crime drama "La vida precoz y breve de Sabina Rivas" [Eng. Trans: The Precocious and Brief Life of Sabina Rivas] is set in towns bordering Mexico and Guatemala, where a young Honduran girl with dreams of becoming a pop star after making it to the United states gets caught up in a vicious circle of exploitation, and slavery.

Sabina Rivas (Greisy Mena) has stars in her eyes, and a local club in the border town offers her the opportunity to perform before an audience. The only catch is that she will need to take her kit off while singing. She nevertheless agrees, and for her services, is given a manufactured Mexican passport by the club's owner Doña Lita (Angelina Peláez). But at the border, she attracts attention from immigration officials - Burrona (Joaquín Cosio), and Patrick (Nick Chinlund) - an American. After Patrick has his way with her, she's allowed to return back to club Tijuanita, and Doña Lita. Jovany (Fernando Moreno), a Honduran migrant too, fresh from being initiated into one of the prominent gangs operating in the area, sees Sabina perform at the club and tries to approach her. We'll learn that they know each other very well, and are both running away from a common dark past. But their individual circumstances don't allow them to get back together, and Burrano and Patrick continue to make Sabina's life a misery...

The film has connotations of an earlier Mexican classic named Sin Nombre in as far as the protagonists' nationality and migratory path is concerned, but this is a different beast altogether, especially with its incestuous undertones and bleak outlook. It is nevertheless well made, and I was particularly impressed by the film's sound design. The performances by the main cast are also sincere, and Greisy Mena as Sabina gives it her all. The film appear at times to be slow-moving, but it certainly pays dividends in terms of the characterisation. Recommended Viewing..!

 

The Nudity: Greisy Mena and others
The film inevitably features several instances of nudity from the titular character Sabina Rivas, unflinchingly played by Greisy Mena. Additional supporting cast also appear topless in a couple of scenes.



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Manuela Oyarzún and Paloma Moreno from “Paseo de Oficina” [2012 Chile]

Roberto Artiagoitía makes yet another below-the-line comedy "Paseo de Oficina" [Eng. Title: Office Tour] and it is pretty apparent that it was meant for a DVD audience on Saturday afternoons, preferably with a few cans of beer. The review will therefore be brief, and I'll let you guys decide if you want to spend any time with this...

It's the day out for employees of a department store in Chile, ostensibly meant for 'bonding' and team building. But they've recently been taken over by a foreign chain, and as part of the shake-up, some of the staff are about to be laid off. The store manager uses the occasion to short-list the staff he doesn't get along with - the group who'll be the main characters in the film. One of them - Danae (María José Bello), wants to steal the letters from the manager's assistant and have them destroyed, and asks his friend Lori (Paloma Moreno) to help. The staff welfare officer Leo (Luis Gnecco) uses the occasion to impress his new MD Benedetto (Gastón Pauls), but he's more interested in trying to patch things up with lover Sofia (Manuela Oyarzún) - Leo's friend and colleague. It's not just the MD - most of the staff too are trying to score with someone during the "field-trip". Cue for some tacky humour, innuendo-laden gags, and horny young couples sweating it out behind the bushes and inside the coach cabin...

Whenever it becomes difficult to determine why some films simply 'suck', more often than not it is the screenplay that's the culprit, which is also the case here. There are some well-known faces in the cast, but they too don't raise the film to anything above mediocre. Apart from a decent performance from Luis Gnecco who plays Leo, and a bevy of pretty Chilean girls in their summer clothes, I found very little to keep me enthused. It even makes the director's earlier frat-themed film - Grado 3 appear good..!

DVD Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Manuela Oyarzún and Paloma Moreno
The film features two noteworthy scenes of nudity - the first is Benedetto's flashback of an earlier successful seduction of a fellow employee - the already married Sofia, played by Manuela Oyarzún, and the second is on a leaky boat between Alexis (Fernando Godoy) and Lorena, played by pretty model Paloma Moreno - it's plain to see she ain't an actress, but bless her for trying..!



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Scenes from El Guachiman [2011 Peru]

It is not often that we get to review films like this, but since Gastón Vizcarra's low-brow comedy "El Guachimán" [The Watchman] isn't particularly making waves anywhere else, it is perhaps reason enough to find out why.

Alejandrino Falopio (Guillermo Castañeda) - not the sharpest tool in the shed, lands himself a job as a guard for a security firm, but that isn't good enough to impress Laurita (Stephanie Orúe) - the girl he's crazy about, and she'd started looking around for someone who could better provide for her needs. Desperate to make money, fast, 'Falopio' makes off with one of the money bags during a collection-round, sparking a city-wide manhunt and frenzied TV reportage where he's seen by locals as a hero. After Laurita spurns him yet again, he decides to spend the cash on a new set of wheels, expensive hotel suites, and prostitutes. One of them - Sol (Anahí de Cárdenas), discovers his identity and takes him to the cleaners after promising him a good time. The police catch up with him, and Sol along with the cash, but will notice some of the loot still missing...

I think the producers, probably rightly, felt a rags-to-riches plot with a few scantily clad 'chicas' and stale gags would be enough to woo a DVD-audience brought up on a diet of cheesy Hollywood trash-comedies. The stereotyping is so outrageous that no one but the deluded is likely to take it seriously - this is after all the kind of film that people won't openly admit to watching, much less enjoying. Intended for those who secretly enjoyed a Harold and Kumar or an American Pie.

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Shirley Arica, Anahí de Cárdenas, and Génesis Tapia
Three scenes chronicling Falopio's whore-soliciting escapades contain some unimaginative nudity; the first of these feature Peruvian model Shirley Arica as Laurita (not to be confused with the namesake he was in love with). The second is funny in that Sol (Anahí de Cárdenas) admonishes him for looking at her while having sex. The third is an interrupted session with Génesis Tapia.



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Identifying one's Morality and Sin, "Joven y alocada" [2012 Chile]

Young Chilean director Marialy Riva spars with religion and ingrained attitudes towards sex in her country through the drama "Joven y alocada" [Eng. Title: Young and Wild].

Storyline:
Narrated through a precocious teenager's astonishingly detailed blog entries, we follow the sexual and spiritual exploits of seventeen year old Daniela (Alicia Rodríguez), daughter of well-to-do evangelical parents in urban Chile. Daniela's mother (Aline Küppenheim) watches over her zealously to prevent any hanky-panky, but Daniela, in deference to her innocent looks, has been sexually active from a very early age, and of late has even been experimenting with threesomes. After one indiscretion too many, she's dismissed from school, and the furious mother punitively takes away Daniela's privileges and forces her to intern at an evangelical TV station, hoping that'll keep her off the thought of sex. However, Daniela will get to meet a colleague Tomás (Felipe Pinto), and will embark on a tentative relationship, which will grudgingly be accepted by her mother, thanks to intervention by Daniela's terminally ill aunt (Ingrid Isensee). Daniela also makes friends with Antonia (María Gracia Omegna) - the niece of the TV station's owner, and before long, they become lovers. There is high drama when Tomás and the mother learn about Daniela's lesbian affair through the very blog she's maintaining. And in between all this, Daniela will want to get formally baptised...

The film highlights the hypocrisy among the older generation who force-feed youngsters with religious dogma to further their own agenda. In trying to depict the damage done to youngsters' self esteem and their own spiritual growth, it criticises a church system that hasn't succeeded in making itself relevant to the modern world. Heavy stuff - all this, but I couldn't help feeling that Ms. Riva may have taken on more than can be accomplished given the scope of the screenplay, which is unravelled mostly through Daniela, whose level of insight is no greater than your average teenager. Because it is hard for someone like me to see this from a Chilean or Latin American perspective, I'll have to take it the way I see it. And this is it - if the film is aiming to address the grown-ups, I'd be surprised if it succeeded at all - themes in the film have been tackled forcefully and even more convincingly before by European directors such Maurice Pialat.

The film also aims to explore an adolescent trying to make sense of her hormonal urges, but it doesn't get down and dirty a la Catherine Breillat, relying instead on the temerity of the protagonist's frankness in her voice-over narration. There is also a problem with the characterisation, which as is so often the case, reflected through mediocre performances. Perhaps I might have missed a nuance or two in the translation or the Chilean accent, but that shouldn't have impacted the film as heavily as this does. However, I'll have to give the benefit of the doubt to Ms. Riva for making an honest attempt at a rather ambitious undertaking.

Amazon.com Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Alicia Luz Rodríguez with María Gracia Omegna, and Felipe Pinto
There are several instances of nudity and depiction of sexual acts in the film - mostly tame, apart from some stylised stock footage used that show explicit sex. Alicia Rodríguez, María Gracia Omegna, and Felipe Pinto appear nude during some of the scenes.



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Martina Gusman and Laura García in "Leonera" [2008, Argentina]

The 70's and 80's may have spawned and subsequently flogged to death an entire sub-genre of exploitative films called Women-in-prison dramas, but just when we thought there's nothing more left to 'explore', comes Argentinian director Pablo Trapero's Cannes-nominated drama, "Leonera" [Eng. Title: Lion's Den]. This one is not for fans of exploitation though - it is serious cinema - a gritty and thought-provoking essay of the human spirit, and an honest inquiry into the judicial system.

Storyline:
Julia, twenty five, is incarcerated for alleged involvement in the murder of her live-in boyfriend Nahuel. Also arrested is Nahuel's lover Ramiro - badly injured, but still alive. While leaving us to ponder and draw our own conclusions over Julia's own lifestyle, the film moves away to focus on her predicament instead - she is pregnant, and with a strenuous relationship with her mother living in France, almost alone. Her middle class upbringing hasn't prepared her for prison life, and despite being placed in a lenient ward set aside for expectant and young mothers, her despair is palpable. But she does manage to make friends, give birth, and her mother too returns to Argentina to provide things for baby Tomás. But when the trial concludes with her conviction, Julia is forced to give up Tomás, and her mother is made the child's guardian. Julia had fought tooth and nail for the child's custody, but had lost all her appeals. She's now only left with a drastic alternative to help regain her son, but will she go so far..?

Trapero has constructed a beautifully nuanced film that is much more than a straightforward story. Shot in real prison surroundings, a lot of effort had gone into portraying the drama as realistically as possible. True, there are cat-fights in the showers here as well, but it also highlights the loneliness among cell-mates - their earning for human touch and affection, and also the humanity of prison guards under less than ideal circumstances. More importantly, we're shown what it feels like to be a middle class woman suddenly denied some of the civil liberties taken for granted, and the determination of a mother to be given the right to raise her own child in prison.

The star of the film undoubtedly is director Trapero's wife Martina Gusman playing the part of Julia (she is also the film's executive producer). Ms. Gusman was actually pregnant during part of its production, which adds a unique dimension to the film. Appearing in almost every frame, her contribution to the film's artistic success is as much as the director's wholehearted effort. The characterisation and screenplay are also at their most imaginative - there are scenes that are exquisitely developed, which, while not pivotal to the plot, nevertheless add rich layers to the narrative. This is an unqualified success for Pablo Trapero, and Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com 2-DVD Set [NTSC]
It includes numerous extras, including the making of, and some deleted scenes. My recommended choice, the set with which this film has been reviewed.

 

The Nudity: Martina Gusman, Laura García, and others
The film features several instances of nudity and breastfeeding from Martina Gusman who plays Julia, Laura García who plays Marta - her confidante and friend in prison, and also from assorted supporting cast during a shower scene.



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