It's a terrific film that opens with an amazing sequence that is reminiscent of Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men. There's a long winding road on a mountain with grand views of a beautiful Latin country (Venezuela), a bloody car, a pregnant woman and a cloud guilt (and questions) that fills the screen. It's a grand opening for a tightly shot and edited story that pushes the viewer ever deeper into the film. It's a also an impressive sequence for a first time feature director; it's enough to handle just making your first film and having everything make sense, but Diego tells a very personal story in this action packed beginning.
We visit a lot of characters in a very short amount of time, and I personally tend to dislike those movies because it never gives me the time to really "settle" on a character and who they are, what they want, and why they're in this movie. I like to make personal connections with my characters even if I never meet them in real life, and here I was given the opportunity.
A crew of gangster villains are set against the backdrop of a tumultuous Venezuelan community where the haves and have nots are revealed not through their homes or their jobs or cars but through their relationships with the hospitals there: the treated and the untreated and the people who treat them. It's a new approach that I later learned comes from Diego's own personal upbringing--both his parents are doctors. What's also new about this approach, is that there is a courageous lack of exposition in the story. Yet nothing feels superfluous or omitted--the questions we have are what drive the story forward and keep the momentum flowing.
As the story progresses there is a lovely unfolding like a flower of the many relationships in the film and the characters. It allows us to go deeper into the story and into these characters' lives and desires. We come to understand the characters motives without it being spelled out for us any point. It's a wonderful balance of plot truly driven by its characters journeys, a delicate motion that Diego succeeds in achieving. It's a wonderful grand film with strong and truthful (my favorite is the police commissioner) performances that should launch Diego's career in the studio system or with independents. He's in a fantastic space with this first feature and hopes to gain distribution soon.
I love watching these kinds of films. It reminds me of the infinite capacity we have to create and to have love in our creation. I hope it reminds those execs making the 5th version of the same movie to take a chance on new talent and see what can grow.
