7 BOXES (aka 7 CAJAS) (SPANISH/GUARANI) (2012)

Paraguay is a landlocked country in the middle of South America sandwiched between Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Due to its central location, it is often referred to as the heart of South America. To the outside world at large, Paraguay is known more for its football than films. Nevertheless, this cracking thriller from Paraguay is set in a bustling market complex in the capital city of Asuncion and unfolds in a span of 48 hours. Our protagonist Victor (Celso Franco) is a 17-year old who makes a living by transporting the loads of his customers on a rickety wheelbarrow across the market which sprawls over eight blocks. While he could hardly make do with paltry earnings, he is fascinated by cell phones (movie is set in 2005 when they were still a novelty) and TV screens attract his attention, even in the middle of a fervent chase. 

One day, the wily butcher Dario, who is expecting a police raid at his premises, offers Victor a deal wherein Victor is required to carry 7 wooden boxes of unknown content around the market for a day and deliver them at a specified location the next day to earn a fat paycheck of $100. Victor gets the deal because Nelson, another wheelbarrow pusher, who is Dario's regular transporter, turns up late as he had to take care of his sick child. Nelson desperately needs the money to pay for the medicine for his kid's treatment. He is frustrated when learns that Dario has given the goods to Victor. Nelson plans to steal the boxes from Victor in order to make the delivery at the specified place to collect the promised $100. Thus, begins a cat and mouse game between Victor and Nelson who enlists the support of several associates in the market to track down Victor and his consignment. There are also a set of cops lurking in the market who are on the lookout for some suspicious activities. Victor is joined by his pushy girl friend Liz who tags along with him in his adventure as he tries to evade his pursuers and safeguard the cargo. In the unfolding tense drama, Victor, Liz, Nelson and his associates become unwitting associates in a high stakes crime involving ruthless gangsters and corrupt cops.


As Victor tries to flee one hurdle after another, Richard Careaga’s with his kinetic camera captures the chase with a frenetic pace that adds to the tension. Director duo Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schémbori use the maze like marketplace buzzing with activity to maximum effect to infuse the movie with crackling energy. This chase movie is an entertaining thriller that would hook the viewers early and keep them engrossed till the very end.

AN EXCELLENT WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5 

WILD TALES (aka RELATOS SALVAJES) (SPANISH) (2014)

"When poison expires, does it get more or less dangerous ?", muses a character in Wild Tales, Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifron's brilliant black comedy, co-produced by the great Almodovar. It is an anthology consisting of six individual pieces themed on rage and revenge. Anthologies, in general, are helmed by two or more directors who contribute individual pieces to the final movie and by this very structure, there is a loss of congruence among the individual pieces. However, Wild Tales, is a rare exception to the aforesaid pitfall as Damián Szifron, who has written and directed each of the six shorts, strikes a fine balance among them and has pruned off almost all flab from the proceedings which engross the viewer in their taut storylines.

The movie begins with Pasternak, where a model boards an air plane and finds, through a casual conversation with another passenger, that she shares a connection with all her co-passengers in the form of her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Pasternak. This is the shortest piece among the ensemble and precedes the title credits and packs a wicked punch in its tail that would leave a lasting impact. 

The Rats (Spanish - Las Ratas) is set in a rainy night on deserted diner, wherein the waitress finds that the lone grumpy customer stepping in is, in fact, the loan shark who had driven her father to suicide and ruined her family.  While she is inclined to insult him verbally, she finds herself caught in a bind of a fledgling moral compass, when the cook - an ex-jailbird herself - suggests mixing rat poison in his food. 

In The Strongest (Spanish - El más fuerte), a suave corporate honcho is driving in his swanky premium car through a remote highway when he encounters a driver in a shabby truck who frustrates him by blocking the path with his crawling pace. He verbally abuses the truck driver and shows him the finger when he ultimately manages to overtake the truck. However, things escalate into a catastrophic case of road rage - a la Spielberg's "Duel", albeit in an ultra-violent version - when the honcho's swanky car has a flat tire and finds that the truck driver is the first to arrive on the scene . 

In "Little Bomb" (Spanish - Bombita), a demolitions expert (Ricardo Darin - "The Secret in their Eyes"), trying to reach home to be in time for his daughter's birthday party, stops to buy her a cake and finds that his car was towed away despite the absence of any markings on the parking space as tow-away zone. He is driven into a righteous rage and his quest to seek justice from the corrupt system pushes him into a downward spiral resulting in him losing his money, his job and even his fragile family. His response to this unfolding turmoil transforms him into an unlikely popular hero.

The Deal (Spanish - "La Propuesta") finds a rich manipulative businessman trying to salvage a situation when he finds that his son is involved in a hit and run accident which has resulted in the death of a pregnant woman. He contacts his lawyer, a long time associate and together they cook up a plan to convince the poor gardener to become the fall guy in lieu of a suitable compensation to his family. But, when the lawyer and the investigating cop start demanding their own pound of flesh for the cover-up, the rich man finds himself in familiar territory of being a hard nosed negotiator in a high stakes game. 

The final piece, Until death do us part (Spanish - "Hasta que la muerte nos separe") takes place in a boisterous wedding reception which descends into an unbridled chaotic see-saw finale when the bride, Romina (an electric Erica Rivas) discovers that the groom was sleeping with one of the guests. 

Seen as a whole, while Bombita and La Propuesta might seem a few shades darker in comparison to the other four stories, they stand out for their gravitas and social commentary.

While at the apparent level there is no connection between the six stories, Szifron weaves them in the same thematic thread where he pushes his leads to their breaking point in a narrative that sparkles with fluency and visual flair. He also manages to transcend the vicious violence in these stories to present his views on the social decay that festers in the form of corruption, inequality and injustice that permeate Argentina at every level. Each of his stories is a resplendent exposition of Szifron's consummate skills as a writer-director, where his stories immerse the viewers in an intense roulette of role reversals, set to a lively pace, packed with oodles of wicked dark humour and horror in equal measures right till their twisted denouement. 

Wild Tales was a final nominee for the award for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards where it lost to the Polish movie, Ida. It has also received wide critical as well as popular acclaim across several international film festivals where it was screened. 


A MUST WATCH !!

RATING - 4/5

BUENOS AIRES, 1977 aka CHRONICLE OF AN ESCAPE (CRONICA DE UNA FUGA) (SPANISH) (2005)

This Argentinian movie set in the 1970s presents the real life story of four prisoners who manage a successful escape from their military junta captors during the Dirty War era in Argentina. The Dirty War era was a dark and infamous period in the history of Argentina when the right wing military government was responsible for the disappearance of several thousands - some estimates put the number at about 30,000 - of Argentinians on the pretext that they were suspected left wing terrorists.

This movie retells the real life story of Claudio Tamburrini and three of his fellow prisoners who manage to escape from a secret detention center. Claudio is a goalkeeper in a minor league soccer team and is abducted by the military secret police who suspect him to be a leftist terrorist. Their suspicion is merely based on the questionable testimony of another captive and they swoop down on an unsuspecting Claudio at his residence. Before Claudio could even grapple with the happenings, he is whisked away to a desolate detention center in a suburb where he is held as a blindfolded captive for several months along with others without any due process. The captives are put through a daily rigour of sadistic violence and humiliation in the name of interrogation by their captors who tend to play dangerous mindgames with the hapless captives. This movie is based on the autobiographical account by Claudio with further inputs from his fellow escapee Guillermo who leads their audacious escape on a stormy night.

The focus in the movie is on the daily ordeals faced by the captives and the unflinching cruelty of the thugs of the junta who inflict unspeakable horrors on them. The movie has a dark and foreboding tone throughout to provide a realistic edge to the happenings with just tiny flecks of rooted situational humour and the final act of escape is set as a thriller, albeit, sans any heightened drama. However, the movie does not bother acquainting the viewers with the social context to the unfolding events. Perhaps, this is one reason why there is a sense of something amiss while watching the movie. 

Nevertheless, this competently acted movie is successful in presenting a very real account of the chilling, visceral torture meted out to the captives without being overtly gruesome and has a gripping and taut narrative which keeps the viewer tense throughout.

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

P.S. -  You can watch this movie on UTV WORLD MOVIES channel which airs it quite regularly.

BLANCANIEVES (SILENT/SPANISH) (2012)

About a year ago, The Artist, a black & white silent movie, stole the hearts of millions and went on to win several accolades including the best movie at the Academy Awards. The roaring success of that movie showed that the silent movies, as a medium, can present several new enchanting dimensions to the viewers who are flooded with a deluge of banal assembly line finished products from Hollywood and its several other regional workshops which rely more on technical brilliance and CGI than more substantive, if economical, storytelling. Seen from that light, The Artist was like a whiff of fresh breeze and was natutrally, lapped up by viewers across the world.

Blancanieves is the latest gem in the line of The Artist. Being a silent movie, it speaks a global tongue. But, one would still need subtitles for the Spanish title cards that pop up occassionally. This movie is based on a interesting reimagining of the popular Snowhite fairytale set in Seville, Spain in the early twentieth century. 

The movie introduces us to the famous matador Antonio Villalta entering the ring for what he belives would be another one of his fine performances in front of an arena filled with adoring spectators. His conceit brings about his downfall, resulting in an accident which leaves him paralysed and immobile in a wheelchair. Further tragedy strikes in the form of his beloved wife dying during childbirth. Crestfallen at his double tragedy, a wheelchair-bound Antonio shuns his new-born daughter, Carmen. Antonio, now a melancholic loner in need of constant assistance, is quickly ensnared by a wily nurse, Encarna, who marries him to enjoy his immense wealth and promptly ignores him after the marriage. 

The newborn is nurtured by her loving grandmother and grows up longing for her father's affection. When her grandmother dies, Encarna brings Carmen to the palatial home, only to relegate her to the barn and to a daily rigour of hard labour.  Carmen is also given strict warnings against venturing to the top floor, for Encarna intends to ensure that Antonio, now virtually immobile in his room there, should not chance upon his daughter. Nevertheless, a sleight of fate ensures that the father and daughter end up meeting each other. In a series of covert metings in his room, they bond with each other and he manages to teach her the art of bull fighting. 

When Encarna gets to know about these secret meetings, she punishes Carmen in a manner that hurts her and leaves a permanent scar. Encarna also ensures that they do not meet each other anymore by keeping Antonio locked up in his room. Carmen grows up into a teenager toiling everyday keeping up with the household chores piled on her. At this point,  Encarna, pushes Antonio to an early demise and even attempts to get rid of Carmen. However, Carmen escapes when she was left for dead in the river. She is rescued by a group of dwarves who are travelling bullfighters. Carmen loses all memory of her past and travels with the dwarves who name her Blancanieves (Spanish for Snow White) after she proves her bullfighting skills when she jumps into the ring to rescue one of the dwarves. She gradually blooms into a matador of repute and the finale sees her performing in the arena where her father was once a star. The finale has certain twists which I would desist from delving into.

The story, having its origins from a popular fairytale, bears lots of semblance to a plethora of desi movies. But, it is the rendition of the movie in the silent medium which proves to be the uplifting factor here. Once again, just like The Artist, we are awestruck by the richness of expression provided by an awesome background score which livens up the entire movie and is a star in itself. Accentuated by the fact that their expressions have to do all the talking, the performances across the board are commendable, especially by Sofia Ora who plays the young Carmen.

Replete with sizeable doses of mischief, romance, action and dark tones, this movie engages the viewers completely and can make us laugh and cry effortlessly. Movies like these are rare gems, not just beacuse such silent movies are so rarely made these days, but for their inherent brilliance to forge an instant and deep organic connection with the viewers. 

A silent movie, that engages the viewers in a speechless state of enchantment, this is, indeed, A CLASSIC !

A MUST WATCH !!

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (SPANISH)

An EXCELLENT movie. A crime thriller fused with a subtle love story..

Set in Argentina, over a period of three decades, it covers the investigation into a brutal crime by an investigation team consisting of a poor, sullen investigator who has fallen head over heels for his boss - an upper class assistant judge educated at Cornell - and an alcoholic assistant investigator.

Populated by "passionate" characters played competently by stunning leads, this Academy award winning movie straddling multiple genres is A HIGHLY SATISFYING WATCH !

Thank you very much Visalatchy Rose for the recommendation !

THE HIDDEN FACE (SPANISH)

An engrossing thriller if you could be patient with the initial part peppered with cliches of yore...

This twisted thriller makes you shift your feelings for the three main leads as it progresses !

Definitely a good watch !

P.S. - This is the original from which Murder 3 was "inspired"..

Thank you Shivam Atri for the suggestion !