With The Language of
Machetes (El Lenguaje de los
machetes), Kyzza Terrazas brings a film that has been long awaited by
several successive generations. Generations that were waiting for an artist, and
especially a filmmaker, to express so properly, and without any judgement, the
terrible ‘mal de vivre’ that we/they all experience.
Tarrazas’ film circles
around a couple composed of a troubled journalist and a sado-masochist punk rock
singer.
They have a grueling time finding out who they are, if they really care
about their professions, and how much they can expect from society and also give
back to it.
Where does their own fight (both with themselves and
with the existing powers) start and how long should it last?
Both characters
feel a deep unease, as if the skins they inhabit were too limiting.
They sound
and act like apocalyptic spirits. As the director puts it:
“Love, the desire to
transform reality and failure in both are thus the main themes of “El Lenguaje
de los machetes”.
It is a film of traces. Of disheveled gestures…Of frontal war.
A case of nostalgia for utopia…”
Therefore, though very
in love with each other, the couple swings between extreme passion and
annulment, between profound declarations, projects, and solitude.
There is a lot of suffering for these characters, a lot
of failure, both as spectators of a society where violence is omnipresent, and
as persons unable to take a major step in their relationship.
They suffer to
such an extent that they decide to play a final act in the comedy/tragedy of
their life, attacking one of the most important symbols of Mexico and its
colonization.
El
Lenguaje de los machetes
is a film that softly swings around the opposition between Mexicans of
white/European origin, the direct and financially privileged descendents of
blond and blue-eyed colonizers, and the local populations who still live a
sort of slavery.
But it also expresses the miscommunication between urban and
rural mentalities. For the latter, all change should come through bloodshed,
through a heavy violence that fills the
air.
Music is
perfectly employed in El Lenguaje de los
machetes, for sheer emphasis in some key moments.
The camera work is all
built on the contrast of lights, colors and tones.
It is without a doubt a film
that has touched its public, and we can only salute the emergence of an original
and breezy filmic philosopher such as Mr. Tarrazas (already the author of two
volumes of short
stories).
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