Un Mundo Maravillioso

Un mundo maravilloso - 2006
(infi2011)
no copyright infringement intended

If the elite in a country decides to follow a neoliberal strategy, the world would become marvelous, un mondo maravilloso. I mean it would become marvelous for them, for the elite. It would be like in a fairy tale: solid contacts with the big shots in the international boards, participation to international meetings, having there historical speeches ... and the fairy tale could go on further: becoming the president of one of those international boards, even thinking at a Nobel for economy or whatever, why not? Life offering everything with generosity, for that's what life is for the elite: a neoliberal fairy tale.

What about the rest of the society? Take the middle class: it means a house, a car and a job. Just a decent life, nothing more. Is it possible? Well, nobody knows it for sure. The middle class is another kind of fairy tale, I mean you'll never know if it's more than a fairy tale.

What about the dirt poor ones? It depends on the fairy tale you want to believe in. In the neoliberal fairy tale, poverty has been eradicated, period. Thus if you see a poor compadre on the streets, he is a freaking lazy drunkard, an impostor paid by the opposition media to impersonate a compadre. Better to forget about, or are you a freaking Communist? There is also another narrative for these compadres, it's their own fairy tale: the present situation is just a temporary accident, soon they will enter the middle class. Sancta Simplicitas!

Well, because all of this is a fairy tale, it happens sometimes like in fairy tales: one of those compadres, the poorest of the poor, el más pobre de los pobres, enters suddenly the rangs of the middle class following a fluke accident that looks like attempted suicide. The opposition media exploits the event. In order to solve the embarrassing situation, the guy is offered a house, a car, and a job. This leads to a sarabande of fake attempted suicides, as each poor compadre wants to be middle class también. And the elite realizes that, rather than eliminating poverty, they should eliminate the poor ones: a new law declares poverty a felony and any poor compadre is thrown in jail. Sounds impossible? Just think twice.

Un mundo maravilloso, the 2006 movie of Luis Estrada, is just that: a fairy tale with some more fairy tales within. Damián Alcázar plays the bum who will experiment that having one day as a rich man is better than a life as poor. ¡Es mejor una día de rico que una vida de pobre!

Un mundo maravilloso - 2006
(video by mario.kamacho)

Now, wait a little: you'll say that right wing policies are bad, thus you should vote the left wing. Just so? Think twice. Or watch the other movies of Luis Estrada. La Ley de Herodes, 1999: the left wing party rotting in corruption and abuses. El Infierno, 2010: mafia and authorities perfectly nested. La Dictadura perfecta, 2014: corruption across the whole political spectrum, manipulation through media, elections as a farce.


(Luis Estrada)

La Ley de Herodes

La Ley de Herodes, 1999
(Revoluciones México, Blog del Cambio)
no copyright infringement intended

San Pedro de los Saguaros: a village of poor peasants controlled by an abusive, corrupt mayor. Eventually the peasants lynch the mayor. It's the rule of San Pedro. The Party sends a new mayor. It's the rule of the Party.

The new mayor (impeccably played by Damián Alcázar) is a nice fellow. He tries to know the villagers and to see what should be done. There is the secretary of the mayoral office, all smile and all caution. There is the village doctor, eternal nominee of the opposition for the mayoral position (the country has a decorative opposition, to give a touch of color to the Almighty Party). There is the brothel's madame, interested in controlling the village through her business. There is the priest, very business oriented. There is the American looking for a public contract. There are the peasants who seem to belong to another universe.

Pretty soon the new mayor understands the Mother of all Rules: it's the rule of Herod, la ley de Herodes. His Party boss explains it in very straight words: o te chingas o te jodes (I'll leave to you the pleasure of finding the translation). The mayor gets a gun and the Book of Constitution (with a secret place on the back for the bribes). And he starts visiting everyone, agitating his gun and taking bribes. A public contract is given to the American, to bring electricity to the village. The American takes the money and puts one utility pole in the middle of the road. Then everybody forgets about electricity. The mayor gets progressively more corrupt and more abusive. False accusations are raised against the doctor, as the opposition has to keep silence or die out. Inconvenient people are jailed or killed. Eventually the peasants lynch the mayor: the rule of San Pedro. A new mayor comes to the village. He is a nice guy.

And after the mayor is lynched, he appears alive and well with a discourse at the parliamentary tribune. Don't ask me about the logic. Elementary, my dear Dr. Watson: the Party never dies.

It's a black comedy superbly slipping into black fantasy, à la Berlanga, à la Guttiérez Alea. It's the parable of absolute power as absolute corrupter: a party came to power long time ago, decided to do the best for the nation; the party acquired more and more power, till it controlled everything; by that time, it was already a mechanism of corruption, just that; and as a party member you were but an agent in that mechanism. Mayor's evolution like party's evolution, from enthusiast beginnings to total corruption. I learned in school about ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny. I understand now the logic behind that scientific theory: the Ley de Herodes.

La Ley de Herodes, 1999
(video by Margarita Gaetas)

(Luis Estrada)

El Infierno

El Infierno, 2010
(Historia de México 2010)
no copyright infringement intended

Benny Garcia had left Mexico as a young fellow to find his fortune in US. What happened with Benny during his stay in US nobody told us, maybe it was good, maybe it was not so good, suffice it to say that after twenty years they deported the guy back to Mexico. To be again home after so many years had its charm, there were the guitars and sombreros, and all the good stuff, plus Benny had the gringo experience, which meant he was able to ride on both worlds. Not exactly, as the gringo experience proved kind of confusing in what he found home. His younger brother had been killed and he had to find the authors and take revenge, actually killings looked very common, the brother's girlfriend, Guadelupe by name, was making ends meet as a prostitute at Café México, her son was rising up as a loose cannon, plus Benny was irresistibly attracted by Guadelupe (who was terribly hot, no question about). Was that the hell or what?

(source: Facebook page of Enrique Martinez)
no copyright infringement intended

A childhood friend helped him adjust. The hell was rather a paradise, provided you were in the gang of Don Reyes. El Infierno was El Paradiso, more exactly El Narco (that was the definition of paradise: being in the narcotic business). All you had to do was to execute the orders of Don Reyes (including to kill now and then), and you had plenty of money, plenty of drinks, a big car, any women you wanted, the order you had them was your choice. Wasn't that splendid? Everybody,  the mayor, the police, the priest, all the others, were under the authority of Don Reyes. Well, it was also the rival gang, of Don Pancho, the two bosses were actually brothers, and the war between them had ups and downs, sometimes it was hot, with mutual killings and disfigurement of victims (fingers and/or ears cut, sometimes beheadings, stuff like that, drones weren't yet so popular), some other times the war was put on hold. All this was keeping the men in that village very busy. The kids dreamed to enter one of the two gangs,  as for the women and old men, it was another story, they weren't living in the paradise, rather in limbo, and sometimes they were unexpectedly shot for unknown reasons, because also the limbo had its rules.

And pretty soon Benny found out that the paradise was just a stage to hell, nobody could remain in the cards for too long, for each one the bell was ringing and the turn was coming to be tortured, disfigured, then killed. Hell and paradise mocking each other, playing a common black farce, for what was life other than a black farce?

The movie stirred extremely controversial reactions in Mexico, for obvious reasons. As the whole movie had not been enough, by the end Benny was shown coming to the Mexican Bicentennial celebration and killing everybody from the official tribune (Don Reyes surrounded by all authorities of the village). Thus many protested against El Infierno saying it was profoundly unjust and unfair to depict their country as a grotesque caricature. Luis Estrada (director, writer and producer) defended his movie, saying that, firstly, a caricature was just a caricature, secondly, a caricature was a very legitimate artistic approach, like all other legitimate artistic approaches, thirdly, he agreed that obviously not all Mexican society was made of drug dealers and corrupt politicians, while this Mexican society had to be aware about the serious problem of having so much criminality and corruption in their country, all these leading to the conclusion that a grotesque caricature was sometimes necessary for its cathartic effect.

I'm just wondering how would I react against a movie depicting in this way my own country. Honestly I wouldn't take it easy at all, but my reaction against it would prove the power of the message. An artist has the duty to say the truth he believes in, with all risks, even with the risk of stirring ardent passions against him. Luis Estrada is politically intense and his movies cannot be but politically intense. His extreme sarcasm calls in mind the movies of Berlanga, and generally the Spanish and Hispanic-American movies are often very tough.

I would add to all this that the value of a movie cannot stand only in what it speaks to its country; it should go beyond and transmit something universal. I think this is the case with El Infierno. It's the drama of returning to your home after many years and realizing that for everybody there you look like an ostrich joke, because that's what you are. It's the tragedy of having illusions till you realize that your life is just a black farce. It's a parable saying that our whole world became a hell in all respects.

El Infierno, 2010 - trailer
(video by elinfiernopelicula)

Kudos for the interpret of Benny (Damián Alcázar), a great actor succeeding in the impossible task of depicting credibly such a contradictory man. Perfectly natural as a profoundly nice guy, perfectly natural as a very effective killer. I'd mention here also Joaquin Cosio, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Salvador Sánchez, all of them playing also in the other movies of Luis Estrada, but all the cast was very good. And a special accolade to Elisabeth Cervantes, the interpret of Guadelupe.

Por mi madre yo soy Mexicano,
Por destino soy Americano.
Yo soy de la raza de oro.
Yo soy México Americano

Yo te comprendo el inglés,
También te hablo en castellano.
Yo soy de la raza noble.
Yo soy México Americano

Zacatecas a Minnesota,
De Tijuana a Nueva York.
Dos países son mi tierra,
Los defiendo con honor

Dos idiomas y dos países,
Dos culturas tengo yo.
En mi suerte tengo orgullo,
Porque así lo manda Dios

Por mi madre yo soy Mexicano,
Por destino soy Americano.
Yo soy de la raza de oro.
Yo soy México Americano

(R. Fuentes)

(Luis Estrada)

La Dictadura Perfecta

La Dictadura Perfecta, 2014
(animal politico)
no copyright infringement intended

Corruption across the whole political spectrum, incompetence, crisis, manipulation through television, presidential elections as a farce, perverted relation between power-opposition-oligarchs-media-mafia. Hey guys, ring a bell? It's the new-new movie of Luis Estrada (starring his long time collaborator Damián Alcázar). Seemingly they announced that were the movie to be censored, it would be distributed for free on the web.

La Dictadura Perfecta, 2014
(proceso)
no copyright infringement intended

The title, La Dictadura Perfecta (The Perfect Dictatorship), is paraphrasing Mario Vargas Llosa (la dictadura perfecta que era México con el Partido Revolucionario Institucional en el poder como lo dijo hace 20 años, ahora es una democracia imperfecta - quoted in La Jornada). Well, for the movie authors, it still remains the perfect dictatorship, even with the alternation of parties to power.

La Dictadura Perfecta, 2014
(cinescopia)
no copyright infringement intended

The plot: the president of the republic makes an incredible blunder, assuring the US ambassador that the Mexicans can do all jobs needed in America, even those that really suck, even those refused by [incorrect term here, definitely a no-no]; the ambassador is visibly uncomfortable; using the N-word is such anti-PC! by the way, the American president of the time is no one other than Obama; the story of the presidential blunder is circulating throughout  the country and everybody is making fun; something big has to be discovered to distract the public opinion; thus a scandalous story involving a governor is disclosed; the governor pays big to clean his image (big means billions); it comes to the discovery of another scandalous story; a dirty media campaign will follow, to change again the public perception, and as the presidential elections are approaching, to make from the governor the ideal presidential candidate; meanwhile two little girls are kidnapped; the investigation is used strictly to improve the governor's image, no matter the risks on the girls' lives. 



And meanwhile I found the movie on youTube; it is also available on Netflix; here you go:

La Dictadura Perfecta, 2014
(video de 2demayo70)

(Luis Estrada)

Luis Estrada

Luis Estrada Rodríguez
(El País)
no copyright infringement intended

Mexican film director, writer and producer, born in 1962 in Mexico City, recipient of Ariel Award for Best Picture in 2011 for El Infierno (wiki). His movies are bitter satires (or just bitter movies) of the political and social situation in today's Mexic (me). His La Dictadura Perfecta is just released (El País).

• La Dictadura Perfecta
• El Infierno
• La Ley de Herodes
• Un Mundo Maravilloso

(Iberic and Iberic-American Cinema)