La zona (2007)

Residents of an enclosed neighborhood in the middle of Mexico DF are shocked by a violent crime, and for one resident in particular, young Alejandro, the drama is ratcheted up when he encounters the lone kid who escaped the event and is hiding out within the neighborhood's borders.

Director:

Rodrigo Plá

Writers:

Laura Santullo, Laura Santullo (story)

Stars:

Daniel Giménez Cacho, Daniel Tovar, Alan Chávez

18 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Giménez Cacho	...	Daniel
Daniel Tovar	...	Alejandro
Alan Chávez	...	Miguel
Carlos Bardem	...	Gerardo
Mario Zaragoza	...	Comandante Rigoberto
Marina de Tavira	...	Andrea
Maribel Verdú	...	Mariana
Fernando Becerril	...	De La Garza
Andrés Montiel	...	Diego
Claudio Obregón	...	Ricardo
Blanca Guerra	...	Lucía
Mayra Serbulo	...	Ernestina (as Mayra Sérbulo)
Asur Zagada	...	Carolina
Germán Valdés III	...	Eddie (as Germán Váldez)
Pablo Aron López	...	Mauricio (as Pablo Arón López)

Storyline

In Mexico City, a wealthy compound is surrounded by walls and surveillance system to protect the locals against the violence of the slums. During a stormy night, a billboard falls over the wall and three smalltime thieves cross the border through the breach to rob. They break into a house and kill an old lady; the residents organize militias to chase the delinquents. Two of them and one security guard are murdered by the vigilantes, but the sixteen year old Miguel hides in the basement of the teenager Alejandro. When Alejandro finds Miguel, he feeds and helps the boy, but it is impossible to escape from the Zone.

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Plot Keywords:

wall | teenager | security guard | violence | hiding | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Memento Films [France]

Country:

Spain Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

9 November 2007 (Spain)

Also Known As:

A Zona - Propriedade Privada

Filming Locations:

Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Morena Films, Buenaventura, Fondo de Inversión y Estímulos al Cine (FIDECINE)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Filmbarátok Podcast: Episode #1.15 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Yo me voy pa' la cumbia
(Bruno Garciía - Sargento Garciía)
© 2006 by Delabel Editions / EMI Music Publishing France. Edicíon autorizada en exclusiva para todos les países del mundo a EMI Music Publishing Spain,
S.A. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

User Reviews

Daddy's Home

At the risk of being wrong, I would say that production in the world film industry is mostly run by the high and medium social strata, with little creative input from the lower class. The middle and high class filmmakers may "starve" (for lack of material means to produce, not food) while they make their way, but once they enter the industry –as image makers for advertisement, television, film or new media- they frequently adopt a too comfortable vision of existence. This approach prevails when they deal with delicate social subjects, as the one Rodrigo Pla tackles in "La Zona", which has the certain value of being one of few films describing the potential violent relations between persons who live walled in exclusive and closed residential complexes, and people who live outside in marginal communities that surround the gated crowd, as in this case. Three poor guys cross the wall of La Zona to steal. Two die, one hides in a family house. Next a "Zonian" teenager finds the one hiding inside his house. For me, the merits of this film end here. Although Pla describes the fascistic tendencies of civil defense and police force, flirts with hyper-violence and adds a gram of science-fiction, this humorless film (and the situation was open to it and much more) opts for a melodrama formula, a tale of the "bad consciousness" type, and in the third act it never recovers. I do not know if the uncontrolled sappiness is a cultural trait of Mexicans, but as used by the filmmakers it has been the cause of much imbalance in many motion pictures, from the works of El Indio Fernández ("María Candelaria") to Iñárritu ("Amores perros"). From the moment the walled teenager's heart softens and he tries to become the savior of the young thief, "La Zona" follows the usual path of melodrama, with servile score that overemphasizes what is obvious. The cardboard characters grow stiffer, Daniel Giménez Cacho handles one of the most embarrassing scenes, in front of a TV set (Maribel Verdú is thankfully in the background and out of focus) and the ironic final shot of the ex-walled and temporarily liberated teenager eating tacos in the corner of a popular barrio, functions as a little scolding to the middle class adults who protect their small privileges to provide a gift (or borrowed) life to kids as the taco-eater, but above anything else as a wimpish validation of the kid's "courage" who, when the lights of the cine go up, will return in his comfortable 4X4 to pa's home in La Zona. And from there… we go back to the first shots of a little (symbolic?) butterfly, flying beyond the wall… Watch it, but wear glasses.