Los conductos

"Los Conductos" is not an easy watch and for the first fifteen minutes or so of this reasonably short film, (seventy minutes in total), you may be as much in the dark as the apparent protagonist literally is, particularly as he is the only character on screen, events, such as they are, happen in almost total darkness and there's no dialogue. A gun has been fired and he appears to be handling drugs so is this going to be a thriller? That doesn't seem likely, even after our protagonist begins his 'noirish' narration.

Shot in the Academy ratio on Kodak 16mm film, Camilo Restrepo's film begins like a political thriller but without the politics or the thrills, not quite avant-garde and not quite experimental but certainly not designed for mass consumption and bold enough to at least hold your attention as you try to figure out exactly what's happening. Restrepo's first feature is certainly original and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. As it has already garnered prizes at the Berlin and Mar Del Plata festivals I don't think he has anything to worry about.

A slow, strong, hopeful movie, and it will seem fairly opaque to many, I guess. The symbolism of color, reliance on self-voice but not much dialogue, and the ending pulled me to consider this movie in the 'hopeful' category, though there is very little sweetness involved in the plot. Slow, poetic, with a foggy plot at times, but it came full circle thanks to the end scene. Perhaps I watched it on a good timing. After a couple of mediocre, depleting examples, this one offered something else: it looked less inviting at first and more honest as it unfolded. It was far from depleting. It might as well be a statement in the form of a movie.

Los Conductos, or the chosen ones (as in "the thug life chose me"), is a film about a man who leads a mostly solitary sociopathic existence (for sociopathy read "what's mine is mine, what's yours is mine"), he's drug addicted and operating as a member of a homebrew criminal gang with cult features. Los Conductos is not a sensationalist movie, it is neither cheap entertainment nor exploitation. It is a sort of dark collage of feelings by someone who used to live this way, but became sickened, and emerged "black koi". It's also a portrait of civic gangrene.

The film to date has been little seen or remarked upon, save by a small cadre of fanatic curator brethren and crazed head-hunter cinemaniacs, and winning the GWFF Best First Feature prize in Berlin, designed to promote risk takers. This film has been put together by masters of style and form. The framing, editing, and the ability to find raw, unembellished beauty are startling. After viewing a film, it can effect the entire way we see the world, a statue of a beast may come alive and jump from its plinth, you might feel like chattering to the first human you see, or hiding deep in the earth; after Los Conductos I'm having a moment of pure solitary aesthetical wonder, just watching how a spar of light is fluctuating and illuminating a cardboard tube that is leaning against my red chair.

It's dangerous to use the word original to describe a movie, and I hardly ever do so, but Los Conductos does feel like it comes as close as a modern film can.

Whilst I'm tempted to use the word arthouse to describe the movie, I'd rather say that it's a movie where you have to do some work yourself, it's not often clear what is being shown, who everyone is, or the order of events, and you also have to decide if any of these things matter. It's a poem, a puzzle, and a polemic, and there is a certain type of espresso-loving ciné wreckhead whose Christmas tree just lit up reading that.

Well, CONDUCTOS, like cigarettes, should come with a very clear warning label: ALL THOSE ALLERGIC TO ART HOUSE MUST AVOID THIS FILM LIKE THE PLAGUE! Hmmmmm.... Just WHERE(¡?¿?!) do I begin??? To me it is PAINFULLY (Literally!) obvious that director Camilo Restrepo had quite a number of unique and intense ideas bouncing around in his head for a rather prolonged period of time before actually taking on this ARTSY project!

Certainly, he must have been keenly obsessed to create the ultimate Colombian Art House Film PAR EXCELLENCE!

....A truly inspired cinematic MASTERPIECE which would serve as the benchmark for scores of other Colombian films for a decade or two to come! Consequently, this review must grapple with the following conundrum: Did Director Carlos Restrepo succeed in achieving his ever so lofty of goals??? My Answer....7******* ! (READ: Well.... Let´s give him 7 Stars for a most heoric effort = ALMOST!

My honest opinion is this film speaks for itself! It is painfully obvious that his effort was monumental... But fell, when being brutally honest, somewhat short of what RESTREPO keenly envisioned and strived for! Most certainly, if nothing else, Restrepo demontstrates his awareness that a DARK, rather opaque screen, tends to make the audience suffer and feel most uncomfortable. He applies this knowledge with an obvious emphasis on what results as overkill!

Another inkling I get from CONDUCTOS is that most of the dialogue is ad-libbed! He must have painted an outline of each scene in very broad stokes and then let his rather talented actors pretty much take it from there! Notice that RESTREPO is also credited as Film Editor. Thusly, he could allow himself to put the all the finishing touches on his truly DARK vision!

We should look forward to his next cinematic venture... Which could very likely be much closer to the Cinematic Masterpiece for which he yearns so desperately!