Los Bastardos

(Mexico , France , USA, 2008, 86 mins)

35mm

Producers: Jaime Romandia, Carlos Reygadas
Screenwriters: Martín Escalante, Amat Escalante
Cinematographer: Matthew Uhry
Editors: Ayhan Ergürsel, Amat Escalante
Cast: Jesús Moisés Rodríguez, Rubén Sosa, Nina Zavarin, Kenny Johnston
Music: Ciril, Jazkamer

A heady mix of aesthetic formalism and pulp crime, Amat Escalante’s bravura sophomore film fearlessly uses the hot-button topic of illegal workers in the U.S. to examine the horror of spiritual compromise.

Two young Mexican men in Los Angeles work as day laborers for arrogant whites who pick them up at Home Depot but refuse to provide a ride back unless threatened. They’re barely scraping together enough money to support themselves, let alone their ailing relatives back home. When given the chance to make a quick buck by killing a suburban housewife, their apparent readiness breaks down into natural hesitation, and they enter into a strange, empathetic relationship with the woman.

Escalante builds an almost unbearable tension by employing long takes full of stillness and contemplation, but always pregnant with the possibility of sudden, brutal violence. Although presenting America as a sort of hell in which people are forced to objectify each other for pitiful sums of money, Escalante keeps his characters remarkably, fearfully human; they would probably rather laugh than spill blood, if only given the chance.

Host University of Guadalajara Foundation/Guadalajara International Film Festival

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