When I see films like this, it makes me wonder why they ever bothered inventing colour film. There’s so much depth, the frame just sucks you in. The camera movements simple, but so effective as they drift around suburban Mexico City, it’s streets and it’s slums. There’s no hurry, in the story, the camera, the cut. It’s a breath of fresh air. Time works differently here and it’s easy to be fooled with the lack of colour that this was shot in the 70s where the story is set instead of today. It’s a work of cinematic beauty depicting social and political upheaval, but there’s a purity to it, with a feeling that nothing’s added without purpose. Music only if it’s in the scene, otherwise only voices, sometimes raised, but often calm. Dogs barking, birds singing, the camera lingering on both the good and the inexplicably bad. Heart warming and breaking. Good things happening to bad people and vice versa, but it’s the grey area in between that offers hope. The world is not black and white. This is beautiful.
9/10
