This film was directed by Sergio Cabrera, whose work I had never seen before, which may have actually prompted me to select it. I think there was a subtle subconscious desire on my part to use this project as an excuse to expand upon my prior cinematic experiences. I think this should be a goal for every cinephile; to watch a film from as many different directors as possible. If I really put forth an effort, there’s no reason I couldn’t reach, … I don’t know, … a thousand different directors?!?, maybe? Of course there would still be issues with access. My desire to watch this film offered an excellent example of how frustrating this project could be at times.
A copy of this film was actually held at a university library not far from where I live. I actually went to this library and located the DVD case, but unfortunately all the discs were kept at the circulation desk for security purposes. And since I was not a student at this institution I couldn’t check it out. Thus I decided to submit an ILL request to, ‘in theory’, transfer the aforementioned copy of this film to a public library that couldn’t have been more than a 10 minute drive away. That idea though never came to fruition. What the ILL process procured instead was a German import released by Kairos Films that was sent from Elon University Library. Thus I offer a hardy danke schön to the good people of Elon, North Carolina.
It’s extremely likely that this film has never been shown in American theaters. Honestly I’m not entirely certain that it ever got picked up for distribution in the US. Based off the initial DVD cover that I actually held in my hand it was distributed by a company called ‘Circulo de Lectores’. According to worldcat.org they managed to sneak copies into 16 American university libraries. Amongst all the distribution paths for this film there was a total of 46 holdings at US libraries, 4 of which were in Illinois, and none of which were at public libraries. DVD copies can be bought off Amazon and when it comes to streaming options, the only recourse one might have is to depend on random posts made to video sharing sites. I was lucky enough to find a stream on Vimeo that had hard coded English subtitles, for which the following critique was based off of. I should note that the YouTube posts for this film did not have subtitles, apart from the built-in option that YouTube provides which I generally would prefer not to use. Someday I’d like to compare the English subs from the Vimeo video to the Google generated stuff to see how close they are, but I have to finish this silly project first.
I’ll give the film credit for offering one of the more unique plots that I’ve ever seen. It was certainly different and refreshing. It gave the film a subtle touch of eccentric flair that was pleasantly delightful. The execution of the film’s story and plot were excellent in spite of its use of a protracted flashback structure. The narrator for this story was a character who didn’t appear that often doing the proper story and whose knowledge of certain events in the narrative could be questioned. But regardless of this the film found a good balance in how detailed the exposition should be. It revealed enough to pique my interest and yet concealed the intimate details of the plot enough to maintain a consistent aura of suspense on where it was headed. Apart from a few detours for character development (namely the scenes between Gabriela and the padre) the pace was brisk and the intrigue from its suspense kept the film incredibly engaging throughout. The film also progressed towards an exciting and satisfying climax. It was a fun and interesting film that had the energy of an action film, the sly ingenuity of an espionage thriller, and yet housed a story that was more heartfelt and endearing than your typical action thriller.
While the plot was peculiar enough to where thinking of a comparable film was a challenge, the basic premise reminded me of Larry Yost’s Homebodies, another film where people faced eviction from their apartment complex due to the whims of wealthy real estate developers. Yost’s film though was dark, chaotic and more fatalistic, while I found La Estrategia del Caracol to be surprisingly cheerful and uplifting. In spite of its potential for tense, dramatic conflict, the film managed to capture the perfect tone to integrate light-hearted humorous elements which made it all the more charming. Plus given the way that all the residents of the building rallied behind a singular cause in order to determine for themselves what was theirs, the film could also be seen as inspirational.
And what a cast of characters it was. If the story and plot weren’t enough, the characters added plenty of additional allure to the film. They came across as passionate, melodramatic people who were brimming with both personality and verve. You know you’re in for a weird film when early in the story we see a transgender tenant get agitated at her squabbling neighbors and then calls them out as ‘freaks’ with a considerable amount of conviction and bravado. There was great spirit in the acting performances and much of the emotion in the performances were portrayed with great depth and nuance. The cast did not create characters who were perfect or who did not have their share of flaws. However the characters were still colorful and vibrant in spite of the meager, impecunious and hardscrabble lives that they led, which made it easy to root for them. They were also a very diverse group with an array of talents that could be put to good use.
In the role of Dr. Romero, Frank Ramírez played a character who could offer his legal knowledge in order to combat the court orders for eviction. While Ramírez did a good job with the small subtleties of the performance, the character was still too rational and practical to stand out here. Dr. Romero’s personality was just not as exuberant as some of the other characters in the film, even though he did ever so slightly build the dramatic intensity in the story. Fausto Cabrera as Jacinto was essentially the brains behind the operation. At the onset Cabrera made the character seem like an old codger, conforming to the old character trope of a creative tinkerer. And yet Cabrera added depth to the role by playing Jacinto as a man of culture. He played the role beautifully as a feisty, fiercely stubborn man of both intelligence and wit. The relationship between Jacinto and Romero was one of the more interesting and awkward relationships since it partnered a rigid man of law and order, with a more wild-eyed idealistic angler who reveled in the possibilities and complexities that existed within societal structures.
Pitted against these men was Humberto Dorado in the role of Mosquera, a rather ineffectual, incompetent lawyer. This character came across as a lazy, dim-witted dork who was easily dominated and intimidated. One can easily see this given the nervousness and anxiety that Dorado displayed in his scenes with Holguin. Dorado also showed an unmistakable apprehension towards Romero’s legal arguments which were used to thwart his character’s aims. Beyond all this Dorado seemed to exaggerate Mosquera’s nebbish attributes for comedic effect, turning him into a bit of a buffoon. Holguin by contrast held all the brash arrogance and ruthlessness that you would expect from a villain. Even though Victor Mallarino played the role as a detached man of wealth, who would rather thoughtlessly delegate all of his dirty work to his underlings then get involved himself. As a pair Holguin and Mosquera made for weak adversaries, even though their ineptitude helped steer the film away from a strictly dramatic film and into more comedic fare. The primary sources of drama in this film arose from the impracticality of the plan and the scant time in which the residents had to pull it off.
Delfina Guido in the role of Miss Trina provided the influence to convince the residents to implement the plot. While Guido showed some good emotion in her early spat with “el paisa”, her performance was relatively restrained. Granted I still liked her performance during the theater scene. The stern almost defiant visage that she gave here really captured how difficult it was for Jacinto to convince his neighbors to adopt the strategy. Guido also did a good job expressing her character’s confusion and shock when first witnessing the apparition. The zeal and religious fervor that Guido felt towards the miracle was well balanced with the forcefulness in which she ordered her neighbors to get on their knees. Guido often showed some wonderful personality in her scenes with Ramírez and Cabrera. Vicky Hernández, as Eulalia, offered little more than a sick husband who initially bought the residents some time at the beginning of the film and some literal firepower. I thought Hernández brought some balance to the cast by playing a character who was far more stoic and socially reserved. The most dominant aspect of her performance was her near constant motif of dread, fatigue and perhaps emotional exhaustion from having to care for her invalid husband. In spite of this I liked her sudden grave countenance when being told that her husband would no longer be useful. This really foreshadowed Lazaro’s fate. Hernández also performed admirably in her husband’s death scene, with a facial expression that was haunting.
Florina Lemaitre in the role of Gabriel(a) could perform some night reconnaissance and run interference, something for which the character was quite good at. For me though, Lemaitre’s performance was dominated by shots of the character engaged in long, self-reflective stares, which suggested that she was pondering the precarious nature of her existence, or perhaps even her identity. And the identity of the character was somewhat of a mystery. I thought it was interesting how the film presented a transgender character. It was never a significant plot point, nor was it ever a source of conflict or tension with any of the other characters, and the film revealed it in a rather nonchalant manner that practically normalized its existence. In my view Lemaitre didn’t so much play a transgender character, but rather a character who just happened to be transgender.
For a female performer I thought Lemaitre did well with a character that had to artificially exhibit the look and mannerisms of a woman. I also liked her work as Gabriel, who seemed like a completely different character. Lemaitre showed remarkable range in making Gabriel seem far more meek and reticent when compared to his feminine counterpart. Still I think her best work was done in the scenes between Gabriela and Father Luis which where the most tender and yet emotionally complex in the whole film. Both Lemaitre and Gustavo Angarita, as the padre, do excellent work here in expressing their characters’ shared sense of alienation.
As for the other characters, I really liked Luis Fernando Múnera’s performance as “el paisa”. He was very passionate during his TV interview segments, with a performance that was enhanced by his expressive body language. He would perform the material as much with his hands as he would verbally. Even during the more somber moments in the film, like when he showed Eulalia how to detect a pulse, he brought a certain manic energy to the film.
The film should also be noted for its cinematography. You can see this quality early on during the assault on the Birdhouse. The film combined an effective moving shot of the cops as they took cover behind their vehicles with a flawlessly staged static shot of the police from an upstairs window. The excellent use of motion can also be seen during the initial eviction attempt on the Casa Uribe. Here a pan shot of its residents added a distinctly human element to the court ordered procedure. One also saw an interesting pull back shot of Romero when he addressed the tenants about their 10 day extension, and there was some interesting fluidity and movement in the camerawork when the residents rushed to conceal their plot to Father Luis, which effectively conveyed the chaotic urgency of this moment.
When the camera remained still, the filmmakers showed an equivalent mastery at framing and mise-en-scène. The shot of Holguin’s cordless phone against the backdrop of the Bogotá skyline offered a delightfully odd image that supported its comedic tone. As a counterbalance to this there was the shot of Dr. Romero framed within Eulalia’s rifle towards the end of the film, which spoke to the dread of inevitability. It’s also worth noting the discussion between Jacinto and Dr. Romero in which both were perfectly staged to leave enough space for Gabriel to be seen in the background as he considered approaching the two. I also thought the film did a great job with the establishing shots which initially didn’t come across as particularly interesting, but were ultimately used to show the progression of the plot. Jacinto’s outdoor address to the residents was brilliantly staged in that it slyly revealed this progression in a manner that was not particularly conspicuous.
The best thing about the cinematography though was that it contained as much joy and flair as the other elements of the film. I enjoyed hearing the clock tick in the background as Eulalia listened to her husband’s pulse, perhaps signifying that time was still barely on their side. There was also something wonderfully artful about the dissolve transitions used during the montage where the towers are built. I enjoyed this tactic much more than the rather drab jump cuts used later in the film, The film also employed the use of fractured, split imagery when discussing the use of Diogenes’s mirrors.
The dialogue was often good as well, and probably my favorite line was an off-hand remark that Jacinto made to his musicians arguing “Where would the world be without complicity?” This expressed the most pertinent sentiment of the film. This film should be seen as a glorious testament to what a motley crew of thieves, leftists, artists, transgender people, people of faith, lawyers, priests and other such scoundrels can collectively achieve. This was a fascinating and excellent film.