El cazador

Marco Berger is an excellent filmmaker, but this one is a miss for me. His better work "The Blonde One" is more of my speed. The kid in this film, his unibrow, as someone said before was way too distracting. Also, the pace was so incredibly slow, it took me out of the story at times. And so it goes. The beat goes on.

Unbearably parsimonious, the only thing worth watching is the main characters' great performances, who manage to take the indecisive plot somewhere away from utter uneventfulness. It does depict the ugly reality of teen exploitation, but it fails to deliver relatability.

I kept getting distracted by the main characters huge uni-brow.

...but this is just boring without a reason, without a cause. It's a short film, fed into a movie. A story what can be exciting, but it's just made boring.

No, art is just not this...

A closeted gay teen, unwittingly blackmailed with a secretly-recorded sex tape, is pressured into making child pornography as a participant and a recruiter of young boys. "For each kid you bring you'll get around a month of your dad's salary," the blackmailer tells his victim, "It's just a job, you see."

It's an important topic given the enormity of the multi-billion dollar child sex video industry and the lifelong trauma experienced by exploited kids.

"El Cazador," aka "Young Hunter" is not an exposé. Director Marco Berger focuses on one iconic story, that of 15-year-old Ezequiel, caught in a pornographer's trap, and 13-year-old Juan, the target victim who sees in Ezequiel a surrogate for the father he's lost. It's further complicated by Ezequiel's falling for Mono - his first boyfriend, he thinks - but also the dude who set him up.

Ezequiel, played beautifully by Juan Pablo Cestaro, wrestles with his dilemma in silence to a great degree - a confused kid, in over his head, with no one to turn or talk to. Free of explicit sex, the script is heavy with talk of shoot planning, gaming, texting, skating, and parental subterfuge. Meanwhile, Berger's shots are quietly coaxing the audience to identify with Ezequiel's angst, even while he grooms Juan as the filming date nears. The film's open-ended resolution is reminiscent of Japanese cinema, a moment in time for the audience to ponder, no Hollywood ending here.

Berger explores this challenging story with humanity and compassion for its innocent young victims, a cautionary tale for anyone unaware of child porn's workings. With fine direction and smart cinematography, "Young Hunter" is a courageous effort which won the support of Argentina's National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts. Some say the final cut needs a trim. Still, it's well worth watching.