Heli

(Amat Escalante/2013/Mexico) 

This is one heavy going movie, starting with an elongated scene of a man held captive in the back of a truck, bleak is too easy a word to apply and maybe inaccurate too. Escalante presents events as inescapable and inevitable, a fact of life in today’s Mexico but as despairing as things get throughout the film it ends on a note of hope and positivity albeit a slight one. Heli lives in a small adobe with his dad, younger sister and his wife and infant daughter. He works in the local car factory. Things are ok, the family works hard and there are moments of joy amidst the routine of their days. However his younger sister is involved with a much older police cadet with dreams of escaping the hum drum by selling some cocaine siphoned off from a drug bust which he stashes at the adobe. Heli discovers both the affair and the drugs and takes actions which lead to a sequence of reactions that change their lives forever. The story shows the corruption in the police, the control of the criminal gangs and the indifference of the two to ordinary, lawful people but not in a deep examining way, more in a matter of fact, this is how it is way. It’s emotionally pummelling but an enthralling and worthy watch. The cinematography and depiction of the Mexican environs are beautiful and counterpoint the ugliness of goings on within them.

(4/5)