This essay discusses crime thriller and action films in Latin America in terms of genre as social practice, focusing on the relation between contemporary Latin American film production and film noir and its contemporary offshoots – neo-noir, neo-political cinema, and ‘dark drama’. The revival of cinema in Latin America since the 1990s - motivated by a wide range of factors - has produced successful films such as
Nine Queens (Bielinsky, Argentina, 2000), Amores Perros
(Iñárritu, Mexico, 2000), and City of God (Meirelles and Lund, Bazil, 2002), which targeted the overseas market and at the same time were responsible for a consolidation of local film production.
45
In terms of the Hollywood genres these films could be categorised respectively as a crime drama, a thriller, and a gangster film. Spanish Latin American critics and producers also employ the word negro (noir) and neopolicial to classify some of these movies, in which conflicts and crime are seen as a result of a turbulent social environment, and whose plot is not entirely concerned with solving a crime. Noir and neo-noir
arose more generally as concepts to discuss post-modernity in the audiovisual industry and the widespread disenchantment with globalised society.1
Indeed, there have always been Latin American crime and political thriller films, all labelled as products of ‘Argentinian’, ‘Brazilian’ or ‘Mexican’ cinema, in an attempt to confer a national identity upon these productions. Recent movies like
The Secret in their Eyes (Campanella, Argentina, 2012), 7 Boxes
(Maneglia and Schembori, Paraguay, 2012) and A Wolf at the Door (Coimbra, Brazil, 2014) can be analysed as Latin American crime films related to neo-noir and neopolicial
genres. The Golden Dream (Quemada-Diez, Mexico, 2013), for its part, is a Latin American road movie targeting what we might call the negative side of the American Dream.
Crimes of History: The Secret in their Eyes
Juan José Campanella’s El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes, Argentina/Spain, 2009), based on Eduardo Sacheri’s 2005 crime novel La pregunta de sus ojos (The Question in Their Eyes), can be described as a crime drama, a crime thriller, or even as a ‘dark drama’. These differences are due not only to cultural differences in the fields of audiovisual and literary production, but also to the kinds of narration involved. The film brings together the platonic passion of a retired penal court official, Benjamin Espósito (played by
46
Ricardo Darín) for his muse Irene Hastings (Soledad Villamil) with the investigation of a brutal and still unsolved crime which was committed during the Argentinian dictatorship. Twenty-five years later Espósito decides to write a fictional account of the rape and death of Liliana Colloti, which took place in 1974. From the outset, the possibility that she was a ‘subversive’ victim is suggested. This hypothesis is shown to be inconsistent and her unhappy husband wanders around the station where he last saw her, accompanied by Espósito's supportive look. The truth is that the killer is in factor a supporter of the regime, and a member of the police. Campanella uses the justifications for the crime based on the social context of the time, and maintains the initial focus of the narrative, that is, the solving of the mystery.
The recent past interweaves with the present as Espósito gathers together his memories for the business of writing his novel, but the answers he finds are no consolation for the pain he experiences: his love for Irene does not come true, and the widower continues on his lonely way. Revenge does not provide redemption. The locations, almost always interiors, emphasise the claustrophobic character of the work - in contrast with the film's only long take, a shot with a duration of some five minutes, in a soccer stadium – and render the lively and musical Buenos Aires of Gardel oppressive and enclosed.
The dialogue and social imagery of the film are equally relevant for the understanding of the film's narrative, as a social practice and experience. The lonely investigator can only solve the crime because he is no longer a member of the Establishment, forced to condone the transgression and hush up the crime; the Civil police acted as a branch of the military
47
dictatorship and turned a blind eye to the methods and character of its collaborators. Campanella's film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 - matching the feat of Puenzo’s The Official History (1985), the Argentinian film which was awarded the very first Latin American Oscar - and led to the re-launch of Sacheri’s novel for the European market as El Secreto de sus ojos.
A Crime of Passion: A Wolf at the Door
Fernando Coimbra’s O Lobo atrás da Porta (A Wolf at the Door,
Brazil, 2013) featuring Leandra Leal and Milhem Cortaz, is based on the 1960 story of an ordinary woman, Neide Maya Lopes (played by Leal), who fell in love with a man who eventually revealed that he was married and had a child. By way of revenge, Lopes abducted and murdered the four year- old and burned the body. She was dubbed the ‘Beast of Penha’, a suburban neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. In this dark account of female passion, betrayal, and dreadful vengeance, the characters do not have any internal conflict, but operate instinctively according to the basic drives described by Freud.
In updating the story Coimbra retained the setting of the Rio suburbs, with its decaying houses, the same in which the original case took place over 50 years previously. He took a distanced perspective on the development of the plot, avoiding any direct involvement with contemporary reality, moving towards a conclusion that surprises with its unpredictability and gruesomeness, besides giving the plot a universal character. The background is nonetheless extremely pertinent to Brazilian reality. The number of missing children is high - families with low income are the preferred target of
48
human traffic gangs - and inspires headlines, articles, campaigns and soap operas.
In Coimbra’s vision, the suburbs are standardised and sterile. The peripheral neighborhoods of Marechal Hermes, Madureira, and Nossa Senhora da Penha Church, where Inspector Bernardo (Cortaz) works, could be situated in any Latin-American country. There is none of the touristic Rio de Janeiro of beaches and Sugar Loaf fame. Suburban space – effectively a city within a city - is shown in terms of enclosures and ghettos. There is no connection between this region and South Zone, where the upper classes live, or with people from other social classes.
The darker visual tonalities chosen for the interiors - filled with the kind of furniture and utensils that can be acquired in any major store through endless monthly payments - emphasise the drama and intimate tone of some scenes, and also help to highlight these people's feelings of isolation. The police interrogation session leading to the resolution of the case takes place in a run-of-the-mill police station and the Commissioner (Juliano Cazarré) is the antithesis of any police TV show investigator, his appearance almost resembling that of a criminal.
Fantasies of Migration: The Golden Dream
La jaula de oro (The Golden Dream, Guat/Sp/Mex, 2013) marks the directorial debut of the experienced cinematographer Diego Quemada-Díez, who deploys the action formulae of a road movie, targeted at teen audiences, a common enough choice in Mexican and Central American Cinema. Juan (Brándon Lopez), Sara (Karen Martínez) and Samuel (Carlos Chajon), three young teenagers from the slums of Guatemala,
49
leave their families in search of the Eldorado that they expect to find on the other side of the Mexican border: the United States.
Along the way, as they ride freight trains and walk the railroad tracks, they meet an Indian boy, Chauk (Rodolfo Domínguez), who does not speak Spanish, and is rejected by the group, except for Sara. In spite of the film’s action thriller use of the camera, some of the techniques used by the director to build the diegetic universe of the film remind us of the work of Loach - for whom Quemada-Díez worked as a camera assistant on Land and Freedom in 1995, and whose influence on narrative construction he acknowledges here - and also of the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. The young actors had no previous experience of acting, and the Brazilian coach Fátima Toledo (City of God, Elite Squad, Central Station) was needed to train the cast.
The true ‘golden cage’ of the original title is the American city promoted by Hollywood, the city of spectacle, the artificial paradise of which Juan and his friends have a vague notion. It will be glimpsed only once, in the magnificent final shot, as a vision, closing with the image of a starry sky and a distant and unattainable constellation. The global city exists, in effect, only in their imagination - never actually shown, simply suggested by their clothes and even by the photos they take along the way. When we see the dead poultry hanging in the freezer where Juan works, it might be a human being, such is the horror stamped on his face – a face which conveys abandonment and emptiness, with unfulfilled expectations for the future.
The ‘golden cage’ is also the title of a popular song performed by Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte (‘The Tigers of the
50
North’), and largely associated with the narcocorridos, the controversial ballads associated with the Mexican borderlands. The lyrics inspired the earlier film la jaula de oro, directed by Sergio Véjar, which they produced in 1987 and which also deals with contemporary Mexican immigration into the USA. In contrast to what happens to the protagonist of the song and of Véjar’s film, Quemada-Díez does not show images of the family the young people left behind, even their homes, just the road and its dangers, the traps, in the spirit of a teen adventure film.
If there are no clues about the slums they left behind, then neither is there any concrete evidence of the big city that will be their final destination. The United States of America represent for the quartet the utopia of freedom, and the access to culture, power, wealth and a new identity. Come what may, however, their destiny will always be in limbo as illegal workers, in peripheral neighborhoods, where they will live haunted by the fear of deportation.
The Action Thriller: 7 Boxes
Finally we come to Juan Carlos Maneglia’s and Tana Schémbori’s 7 cajas (7 Boxes, Paraguay/Spain, 2012),an action thriller mixing suspense and black humour, and the first Paraguayan box office hit in years. The directors are known for their short films and their work in television. The creation of avowed cinephiles, this is an action thriller with a very Paraguayan context, but in 7 Boxes we can also spot the wider cinematic influences of Guy Ritchie, the Coen Brothers, and, of course, Hitchcock.
Víctor is a 17 year-old barrow boy in Municipal Market Number 4, the most famous in Asunción, who dreams of
51
becoming famous. He receives an unusual proposal, to transport 7 boxes of unknown content in exchange for a torn- off half of a $100 note. The other half will be given to him when he finishes the job. Víctor, who has never seen a bill of such a value, has no idea how many guaraníes it is worth. With a borrowed cell phone, Víctor embarks on the journey. Without even realising, Víctor and his pursuers will get involved in a crime of which they have no knowledge.
The film is spoken part in Guaraní, the popular language of Paraguay, as well as Spanish, the official one. Crossing the eight blocks that constitute the market seems easy but things get complicated along the way, and they will be chased by others - barrow boys, gangsters, and policemen. References to Hitchcock are clear enough in the scenes of police persecution, and Victor’s confrontation with the other carriers and with the gangsters.