La fiesta del Chivo

I think The Feast of The Goat is a very good film, of course always taking into account that it is an adaptation of the novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, it is not a documentary, which means that not all the facts presented in the movie are real, some come from the imagination of the author. It you want to know what is real and what is not, then investigate about the Dominican history. This movie is a sad and interesting story of a woman that went through the same that many other women did in that time where the Dominican Republic belonged to Rafael Trujillo the Dictator for 30 years, they also show the atmosphere of fear and lack of respect for the human rights. The movie is located in the last years of the period so we can see the conspiracy to kill him, and the facts that leaded those people to do it. The performances of Tomas Milian as Trujillo and Stephanie Leonidas as young Urania were very convincing. The costumes were good but some of the ones Tomas Millian wears are big for him and it is very obvious. Isabella Rosellini is OK nothing to be remembered, she just does the job.

The problem with this film is that you have a director ,producer from other countries and actors speaking castilian they don't get the feeling of the era of Trujillo's's dictatorship,and can't make it work, I Lived that ERA, the fear of Trujillo's SIM (Intelligence Service) was tremendous and one thing that distinguish that Era was that those that served the regime were very protective of any anti-Trujillo's's ideas and served as an extension of his government to protect their own lives and that of their families, fear of him and his goons (Johnny Abe), although at the time of this movie things were changing was enormous, you never get that feeling during this movie, to me this film is just one of thousands,that were lived in the country in his 30 years.

Don't believe that because I am Peruvian as Luis LLosa or Mario Vargas Llosa I am going to clap their work without criticism. Other movies of the first and some books of the second are not likable to me. In this case I have to say this is for me, a great book adaptation (ok, maybe some characters and scenes where eliminated, but imagine how much should have last the movie if not). And also the cast was well elected. The movie is a political history thriller, that refers to a Latin American real era, and has to photograph it as perfect as can. The other part, Urania's history is a psychological drama history, and it can be shocking, but the idea is that it has to be; it is the history of a trauma post raping, and it's consequences in family and personal life. I think the movie is well guided and the two parallel histories are well related. But I have to say that sometimes it was a little difficult to follow context, most in the scenes of the car.

As hard as it is to top any book with a movie, this one may be Especially harder, Mario Vargas Llosa is an outstanding writer and I Believe Lucho Llosa did a splendid job with this film. Isabella Rossellini was incomparable as usual, as well as many new faces, such as Stephanie Leonidas, who played the part of young Urania Cabral with so much passion it steals your heart. There are some twists in the story that will blow your mind away; although I must insist on reading the book first, even without the book the story is captivating. Aside from the acting and the very interesting plot, I believe everyone (especially us Latin Americans) should pay special attention to the story and be very aware of history repeating itself.

As a Dominican, I can say the movie cannot be considered as the movie about the Trujillo government, but about the story of how some things were in those years, specially how difficult was for some women specially that were attracted by Trujillo, and how Urania's life changed after going to help his father reputation while going to the supposed "party" with Trujillo, that became into the Goat's party as the movie is named. I haven't read the book yet, but I like the movie and I recommend it movie. For people interested in knowing about Trujillo's era, also you can see "In the times of the butterflies", it is also more realistic about Trujillo's times.