Luz, La Fleur du Mal

Luz: The Flower of Evil (2019) This Colombian film is a beautiful and scary work of art. The feature debut of Juan Diego Escobar Alzate who has done television work and short films previously, it is assured and bewitching. Taking place in the remote mountains. We are never sure where or when. One of the girls finds a cassette recorder in the woods, so it must be late 20th century or later. They live a primitive life, horses for transportation, no electricity, and no indoor running water. The community is basically a cult, run by El Señor. Besides his daughter and two other girls in his household, he has a boy chained in a pen outside. He says the boy is Jesus. But he has had other boys who didn't prove to be the Messiah. El Señor rules the community with an iron hand, but the girls are beginning to see through his prophet act. Other villagers are starting to stray in various ways. As real life intrudes, El Señor begins to lose control. And the boy in the pen definitely is not Jesus...