Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: Escalante’s Mexico Still Suffering
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
- 6/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Heli, Mexico's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : Outsiders Pictures. International Sales Agent: Ndm (Mantarraya Productions)
For close to a decade now, the Mexican people have been served a daily dose of terror. Tortured, beheaded, and dismembered bodies appear every day scatter around the country as retribution and collateral damage of the ongoing drug war. Reveling in the ubiquitous impunity, such elaborate nightmarish scenes have become the cartels’ preferred method for effective narco-propaganda. Left powerless and frightened, the citizens’ only hope for sanity is to ignore and go on praying the deplorable violence doesn’t reach their homes.
Naturally, such frustration infects all forms of artistic expression, being cinema the most vivid of them all.
Nonetheless, the subject has been blatantly avoided by most of the country’s filmmakers. As the quotidian carnage becomes a perpetual occurrence, it is often observed from a distance achieving an unsettling normality. Through this disconnection the dead are rendered to a numeric value, nothing more than a statistic. Film allows the creator to humanize the victims and the perpetrators, and to make them relevant once again. Mindful of this, and serving as cathartic vehicle to voice the nation’s anguish, Amat Escalante’s film Heli is a gripping and unforgettable tour de force.
Emerging all over the Mexican rural landscape, factories and industrial plants have become the origin from which makeshift communities sprawl. Families settle in the vicinity as their lives become dictated by the only source of licit employment in the area. Like most of the men in his small town in the state of Guanajuato, Heli (Armando Espitia), a young family man, works at the Hirotec plant assembling cars, as does his father. Together they support Heli’s sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), a spunky teenage girl, his similarly young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and his infant son Santiago. Surely they manage to make ends meet earning an honest living, but there are visible apathetic undertones in their behavior that resemble the vast desolation of the arid setting.
Falling in love for the first time, middle schooler Estela is secretly dating 17-year-old cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). Easily amused, she enjoys going for rides in his worn out car while he proudly showcases his strength and knowledge acquired during military training. Despite Beto’s efforts to get intimate, their juvenile romance is something rather innocent and pure. The young man has plans of marrying Estela and moving away, but in order to realize his ambition he decides to take a dangerous route. Familiar with his superior’s illegal hiding spot, he steals a couple cocaine packages and hides them in Estela family’s water tank with intentions of reselling them.
Casually discovering the packages, Heli doesn’t hesitate to destroy them, and immediately prohibits Estela from seeing her boyfriend. Still, it is already to late to avoid the consequences of their involuntary involvement. Just as Heli and his father discus the incident, a squad of murderous policemen breaks in to then kill the older man. Heli and his sister are kidnapped alongside Beto to be punished for their family's fault. After enduring appalling torture, Heli survives the ordeal, but is now faced with unfathomable hardships to rebuild his life. Between the flagrantly shameless corruption of the authorities and his pent up frustration, Heli can’t make sense out of his helpless condition. Having no clue of Estela’s whereabouts, he is taken over by violence and the need for liberating vengeance.
From newcomer Espitia in the eponymous and crucial role of Heli, to the young boys forced to witness and participate in the sadistic physical punishments, the director’s use of non-professional actors delivers mesmerizing results. In addition to the perfect naturalism and credibility offered by the performers, the piece is shot with and eerie allure, which takes advantage of the sweeping landscapes of southern central Mexico. Intensely beautiful, but equally disturbing in content, the film conveys its highly political yet humanistic message, in a purely cinematic manner.
Tackled with unflinching courage, the shocking realism is never overdone. Escalante’s vision is one of audacious commitment to expose brutality without restraint. Deliberately harsh, the gruesomeness is not there for mere gratuitous exploitation, but to purposely make a statement about the indignant state of the country. The social degradation his film examines emanates not only from the drug war, but also from the abysmal economic inequality, the lack of opportunities, and an amoral government.
Via this family’s ravaged lives he looks at Mexico’s current chaos straight in the eyes fearless of the backlash and with spellbinding, almost heroic, artistry. Escalante is a fearless auteur that refuses to condone the complicity of indifference. He knows the truth must be told regardless of how disconcerting it may be. Heli is an intoxicating and striking piece of filmmaking that inhabits the viewer’s psyche long after the evocative final sequence comes to an end. Furthermore, in the midst of such alarming and unnerving disarray, Escalante offers hope. As a fellow Mexican, this writer applauds him.
"Heli" Opens in Los Angeles (Laemmle's Playhouse 7/NoHo 7) and in New York (Cinema Village) on June 13th, 2014
This review was originally published last year as part of our coverage for the Foreign Language Oscar Submissions...
For close to a decade now, the Mexican people have been served a daily dose of terror. Tortured, beheaded, and dismembered bodies appear every day scatter around the country as retribution and collateral damage of the ongoing drug war. Reveling in the ubiquitous impunity, such elaborate nightmarish scenes have become the cartels’ preferred method for effective narco-propaganda. Left powerless and frightened, the citizens’ only hope for sanity is to ignore and go on praying the deplorable violence doesn’t reach their homes.
Naturally, such frustration infects all forms of artistic expression, being cinema the most vivid of them all.
Nonetheless, the subject has been blatantly avoided by most of the country’s filmmakers. As the quotidian carnage becomes a perpetual occurrence, it is often observed from a distance achieving an unsettling normality. Through this disconnection the dead are rendered to a numeric value, nothing more than a statistic. Film allows the creator to humanize the victims and the perpetrators, and to make them relevant once again. Mindful of this, and serving as cathartic vehicle to voice the nation’s anguish, Amat Escalante’s film Heli is a gripping and unforgettable tour de force.
Emerging all over the Mexican rural landscape, factories and industrial plants have become the origin from which makeshift communities sprawl. Families settle in the vicinity as their lives become dictated by the only source of licit employment in the area. Like most of the men in his small town in the state of Guanajuato, Heli (Armando Espitia), a young family man, works at the Hirotec plant assembling cars, as does his father. Together they support Heli’s sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), a spunky teenage girl, his similarly young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and his infant son Santiago. Surely they manage to make ends meet earning an honest living, but there are visible apathetic undertones in their behavior that resemble the vast desolation of the arid setting.
Falling in love for the first time, middle schooler Estela is secretly dating 17-year-old cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). Easily amused, she enjoys going for rides in his worn out car while he proudly showcases his strength and knowledge acquired during military training. Despite Beto’s efforts to get intimate, their juvenile romance is something rather innocent and pure. The young man has plans of marrying Estela and moving away, but in order to realize his ambition he decides to take a dangerous route. Familiar with his superior’s illegal hiding spot, he steals a couple cocaine packages and hides them in Estela family’s water tank with intentions of reselling them.
Casually discovering the packages, Heli doesn’t hesitate to destroy them, and immediately prohibits Estela from seeing her boyfriend. Still, it is already to late to avoid the consequences of their involuntary involvement. Just as Heli and his father discus the incident, a squad of murderous policemen breaks in to then kill the older man. Heli and his sister are kidnapped alongside Beto to be punished for their family's fault. After enduring appalling torture, Heli survives the ordeal, but is now faced with unfathomable hardships to rebuild his life. Between the flagrantly shameless corruption of the authorities and his pent up frustration, Heli can’t make sense out of his helpless condition. Having no clue of Estela’s whereabouts, he is taken over by violence and the need for liberating vengeance.
From newcomer Espitia in the eponymous and crucial role of Heli, to the young boys forced to witness and participate in the sadistic physical punishments, the director’s use of non-professional actors delivers mesmerizing results. In addition to the perfect naturalism and credibility offered by the performers, the piece is shot with and eerie allure, which takes advantage of the sweeping landscapes of southern central Mexico. Intensely beautiful, but equally disturbing in content, the film conveys its highly political yet humanistic message, in a purely cinematic manner.
Tackled with unflinching courage, the shocking realism is never overdone. Escalante’s vision is one of audacious commitment to expose brutality without restraint. Deliberately harsh, the gruesomeness is not there for mere gratuitous exploitation, but to purposely make a statement about the indignant state of the country. The social degradation his film examines emanates not only from the drug war, but also from the abysmal economic inequality, the lack of opportunities, and an amoral government.
Via this family’s ravaged lives he looks at Mexico’s current chaos straight in the eyes fearless of the backlash and with spellbinding, almost heroic, artistry. Escalante is a fearless auteur that refuses to condone the complicity of indifference. He knows the truth must be told regardless of how disconcerting it may be. Heli is an intoxicating and striking piece of filmmaking that inhabits the viewer’s psyche long after the evocative final sequence comes to an end. Furthermore, in the midst of such alarming and unnerving disarray, Escalante offers hope. As a fellow Mexican, this writer applauds him.
"Heli" Opens in Los Angeles (Laemmle's Playhouse 7/NoHo 7) and in New York (Cinema Village) on June 13th, 2014
This review was originally published last year as part of our coverage for the Foreign Language Oscar Submissions...
- 6/11/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Family drama, black comedy and mob-imposed cruelty clash in Amat Escalante’s queasy Cannes’ Best Director-winning crime fable, Heli. It goes without saying that the Cannes jury has been known to make mistakes, especially when a film’s politics is allowed to cloud their judgement, but with Heli they rewarded an uneasy mix of ingredients in which any political subtext is muddy, and in which the storyteller is too self-consciously awkward to deliver a flick that one could call wholly satisfying.
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
- 5/28/2014
- by Brogan Morris
- We Got This Covered
Amat Escalante’s vision of a semi-industrial Mexico besieged by the ciphers and signs of American-style gang warfare is like experiencing a vivid nap-dream that declines into a series of incongruous and nightmarish images and feelings. The editing style and pacing are borrowed from the most effective techniques of modern horror movies, calming you to alpha-state before ripping you abruptly out of it.
Adolescent schoolgirl Estela (Andrea Vergara) lives with her brother Heli (Armando Espitia) and his wife Sabrina (Linda González), and spends her out-of-school hours developing a languid relationship with older boy Alberto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). It’s a casual and precipitous affair, rendered all the more fatalistic and inevitable by the sunburnt landscapes and the implacable industrial backdrop of the American car factory where Heli is employed.
In the boredom and limitation of this existence, curiosity drives Alberto to discover what a shackled dog could possibly be guarding...
Adolescent schoolgirl Estela (Andrea Vergara) lives with her brother Heli (Armando Espitia) and his wife Sabrina (Linda González), and spends her out-of-school hours developing a languid relationship with older boy Alberto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). It’s a casual and precipitous affair, rendered all the more fatalistic and inevitable by the sunburnt landscapes and the implacable industrial backdrop of the American car factory where Heli is employed.
In the boredom and limitation of this existence, curiosity drives Alberto to discover what a shackled dog could possibly be guarding...
- 2/14/2014
- Shadowlocked
★★★★☆ Heli (Armando Espitia), the protagonist of Amat Escalante's 2013 Palme d'Or nominee of the same name, is a young Mexican who lives with his father, his son, his young wife (Linda Gonzalez) and 12-year-old sister, Estella (Andrea Vergara). He's prone to bad luck, keen on his naps and, when a census taker comes to the house, hesitates about how many people live there with him. However, when 17-year-old army cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios) falls in love with Estella and makes plans for the two of them to run away together, Heli's cataclysmic knee-jerk reaction will plunge the family into pitiless and brutal violence.
Narrative films concerned with roving drug gangs, political corruption and barbaric acts of extreme and horrendous violence are depressingly common nowadays and have formed the backdrop for several high profile Hollywood movies in recent years, including Oliver Stone's Savages (2012) and Mexico's own Miss Bala (2011). However,...
Narrative films concerned with roving drug gangs, political corruption and barbaric acts of extreme and horrendous violence are depressingly common nowadays and have formed the backdrop for several high profile Hollywood movies in recent years, including Oliver Stone's Savages (2012) and Mexico's own Miss Bala (2011). However,...
- 10/20/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
As previously reported, Amat Escalante's Heli opens in Mexico on Friday, August 9. So the director and his cast are here supporting their film and getting ready for the Mexico City premiere, to be celebrated at the Cinematheque (Cineteca Nacional) on August 6. Escalante, Armando Espitia (Heli), Andrea Vergara (Heli's sister Estela), Eduardo Palacios (Estela's boyfriend Beto), Linda González (Heli's wife Sabrina), Ramón Álvarez (Heli's father) and Reina Torres (Detective Maribel) already met with the press for a conference. Many topics were discussed, including violence in Mexico, Escalante's relationship with Carlos Reygadas, and, of course, the Cannes 2013 Best Director award. "Even if you don't like this type of cinema, you should give Heli an opportunity. Even (Steven) Spielberg liked it!" said Escalante. Here I...
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- 8/6/2013
- Screen Anarchy
The critics rained on Baz Luhrmann's parade but a star was born in Young and Beautiful, and Sofia Coppola hit a nerve with a film about a teen gang robbing the homes of Hollywood stars
Nicole Kidman is here in Cannes, so is Ang Lee, and Audrey Tautou, and a second-generation Jagger, and Justin Timberlake, and Cindy Crawford, and Cheryl Cole, and Pelé, and all of them have been rained on, stubbornly, for days. Rain at Cannes used to be rare, regulars say. Russell Crowe has an anecdote about sitting in a screening wearing sodden zip-ups back in 1991, and Bruce Willis got splashed by a freak wave in 2006 – but for a couple of decades straight, at least, this festival was a dry deal, screenings and parties staged outdoors, everyone "cooked to a turn" (as F Scott Fitzgerald described the local way of sunbathing). Then last year the roof of the Soixantième theatre blew off.
Nicole Kidman is here in Cannes, so is Ang Lee, and Audrey Tautou, and a second-generation Jagger, and Justin Timberlake, and Cindy Crawford, and Cheryl Cole, and Pelé, and all of them have been rained on, stubbornly, for days. Rain at Cannes used to be rare, regulars say. Russell Crowe has an anecdote about sitting in a screening wearing sodden zip-ups back in 1991, and Bruce Willis got splashed by a freak wave in 2006 – but for a couple of decades straight, at least, this festival was a dry deal, screenings and parties staged outdoors, everyone "cooked to a turn" (as F Scott Fitzgerald described the local way of sunbathing). Then last year the roof of the Soixantième theatre blew off.
- 5/19/2013
- by Tom Lamont
- The Guardian - Film News
Amat Escalante's damning indictment of contemporary Mexico is tough to watch at times, but its horrors demand our attention
Man cannot subsist on glamour alone, and Cannes knows it. So, after the sugar rush of opening nighter The Great Gatsby, the programmers scheduled in some veg. It was served New Wave Mexican style: raw, gritty, and force fed by bandits who snap puppies' necks with one hand while recruiting underage sex slaves with the other. It tasted as superficially indigestible, if ultimately nutritious, as the prickly pears our hero hacks off the desert cacti in a frenzy of impotent rage.
Heli (Armando Espitia) is about 20, and lives with his wife, baby, father and 12-year-old sister Estela (Andrea Vergara). This we learn when a census officer pops by his breeze-block house – a half-cute, half-clumsy device – just before he hops on his boneshaker for the night shift at the local auto factory.
Man cannot subsist on glamour alone, and Cannes knows it. So, after the sugar rush of opening nighter The Great Gatsby, the programmers scheduled in some veg. It was served New Wave Mexican style: raw, gritty, and force fed by bandits who snap puppies' necks with one hand while recruiting underage sex slaves with the other. It tasted as superficially indigestible, if ultimately nutritious, as the prickly pears our hero hacks off the desert cacti in a frenzy of impotent rage.
Heli (Armando Espitia) is about 20, and lives with his wife, baby, father and 12-year-old sister Estela (Andrea Vergara). This we learn when a census officer pops by his breeze-block house – a half-cute, half-clumsy device – just before he hops on his boneshaker for the night shift at the local auto factory.
- 5/16/2013
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Amat Escalante is the youngest director by a considerable margin to have a film In Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, though he’s no stranger to having his films shown there – his debut Sangre and follow-up The Bastards have both showed up in Un Certain Regard in previous years. His third feature, Heli, sees the director graduate to the big(ger) leagues, joining the likes of Soderbergh, Ozon, Miike and the Coen Brothers this year in the festival’s most esteemed banner, competing for the prized Palme d’Or. It’s a grim start for Escalante’s latest, which opens with a man being thrown and hanged from a bridge, the motivation behind which we do not realize for quite some time. Like many – arguably too many – entries into the so-called New Mexican Wave of recent years, the narrative focal point to Heli is a combination of neo-realism (early glimpses of the titular character...
- 5/16/2013
- by Shaun Munro
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The first thing anyone is sure to notice in Amat Escalante's Heli is Lorenzo Hagerman's cinematography. The film opens with the sole of a boot pressed against a young man's face as he is bleeding, bound, gagged and lay flat on the bed of a moving truck. Next to him is another young man whose face we cannot see. All we hear is the creaking of the truck as it rolls down a dirt round in an unspecified Mexican town. All in one shot, the camera slowly pans up and moves into the cab of the truck as the sun beams in over the horizon. It's a beautiful shot and I couldn't help but be reminded of how film limits our knowledge of what's going on based on what we see. Only minutes earlier we were looking at a grisly scene and now, through the front window, the...
- 5/15/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
I haven't seen any of Amat Escalante's films, but tonight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival I will be introduced to the director's third solo feature film, Heli. The film is playing In Competition. Made up almost exclusively of newcomers, the story centers on Estela (Andrea Vergara), a 12 year old girl who has just fallen crazy in love with a young police cadet (?Juan Eduardo Palacios) who wants to run away with her and get married. Trying to achieve this dream, her family will have to live the violence that is devastating the region. Yes, the age of Estela sounds a little weird to me too, but after watching the clips below it's clear the young cadet in question isn't exactly a twenty-something. For more on that Escalante adds: This region is very religious. During the shoot, we had to stop for four days because the Pope was visiting the city.
- 5/15/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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