Desierto

(image from the web)

Last week I wrote about the posters which I saw advertising a new film called "Desierto".  Last Friday Alejandro and I went to see the movie.  

The film is a Mexican-French production which won an award at the Toronto International Film Festival.  This certainly is not a movie which Donald Trump or his supporters would enjoy.  The heroes are a group of Mexican migrants attempting to cross the border; the villain is a xenophobic, rifle-toting vigilante.  

It is an interesting and topical movie, and the stark images of the desert landscapes will stick in your mind.  It is fast moving and definitely not boring.  However, it is not a deep movie.  There is not much of a plot, and not a great deal of dialogue.  Even if you don't speak a word of Spanish you would have no trouble following the story line.  It is basically a chase movie... or you could even say a formulaic horror flick.  The protagonists are chased across the desert by monsters... the demented vigilante who is the epitome of evil, and his terrifying, vicious dog.  There is no subtlety; we are given very little background on the characters.

For a better understanding of the issue of undocumented migrants I would recommend the old 1983 movie "El Norte" which I used to show to my Spanish classes.  It tells the story of two Guatemalan teenagers who escape the violence in their homeland, and make their way across Mexico to the United States.