interlingua_usa

At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this movie. I like movies about political issues, but I don't like simple propaganda or sentimental movies. This sounded like it might be both. But in the best tradition of Italian Neo-realism, this is a movie about the lives of ordinary people but, because they live in the remote mountains of Colombia in the 1990s, their lives are anything but ordinary. Politically, they are caught in the middle of a struggle between guerrillas and the military. On a more personal level, many of the characters are torn between a Catholic devotion and customs that are violent, sensual, and corrupt.

The acting is great, the photography beautiful. The movie, naturally, treats a number of themes that have to be considered in any movie set in this place and time, but does so in gripping ways.

Highly recommended. At the Chicago Latino Film Festival, we also had the good fortune to meet the leading actor.

Like another reviewer on here, I saw this movie at the Chicago Latino Film Fest and also liked it very much. The movie is set in Mexico City and Tijuana and deals with some of the frustrations in the lives of the poor and lower middle class. It starts off good and gets steadily better throughout the movie.

And as with an earlier reviewer, at my showing the director also appeared and someone asked about his nationality. The person who asked was Mexican and she didn't believe the director himself was from Mexico. So it's not just "Caucasians" or "females" that sometimes assume most Mexicans are brown.

The first twenty minutes, I had to fight the urge to leave the theater. Aggressive transitions from shot to shot and an unhealthy, obsessive relationship both turned me off. But rather than being some failure on the part of the director, these were clearly part of his overall design.

The movie is a painful look at love, unhappiness, longing, and an elegant city--Buenos Aires--as seen from the unusual perspective of two Chinese workers in a slaughter house. Have patience, let yourself get angry and frustrated at the beginning, but sit through until the end. You won't be rewarded with any simple love story nor with candy coatings, but you'll see a movie that makes you think and feel. If you've ever lived in a foreign country, this movie will also speak to the excitement and loneliness that you inevitably feel.

And pay attention for the shots of Ushuaia near the end.