Frankfurt

Munyao Mutinda reports from the second Latin American and Spanish Film Festival at Instituto Cervantes.

One of the themes that emerged from the movies screened at the just concluded Spanish and Latin American Film Festival at the Instituto Cervantes in Frankfurt was the symbolic coming of age of Latin America.

The five-day film festival, which ended on Sunday, 29 November, featured selected productions from Spain and Latin America and the focus was contemporary Latin American cinema.

But, while the films tried to show the world that there is more to Latin America than violence, crime and poverty, they also presented the dilemma in the region about the same problems. There is no denying that the problems exist and the residents still grapple with them. Some seem to have turned the corner but the majority are stuck in a rut.

The films expose the paradoxes in the world of Latin America and juxtapose affluence with poverty to drive the point home. Take ‘Una Semana Solos’ (A Week Alone) by Celina Murga, which was screened on Thursday, 26 November, for instance. It shows the children of a closed upper society in Argentina grappling with exposure to the real world in one week without their parents. Home alone and left to their own devices, the children try to have some well-intentioned fun but the situation degenerates into mayhem when an outsider infiltrates their circle and shows them a thing or two about having a blast. The innocent everyday things of childhood and the shenanigans that result from the encounter make up a story that reflects a reality rarely told nowadays: the awkwardness of adolescence, the pangs of puppy love, and the inevitable mischief of children without supervision. But it ultimately shows the hurdles children in the segregated upper class face as they grow up and their ultimate coming of age.

The same theme that Josué Méndez appears to pursue in ‘Dioses’ also screened on Thursday. The film exposes the debauchery and decadence that characterise the lives of the high class in Lima. There are endless parties, alcohol, drugs and lots of money, which present an almost insurmountable challenge for the children in the Peruvian upper class, an isolated society where everyone fancies himself or herself as a god: beyond rules, beyond reproach. It is a struggle for the children who are loaded with money but deprived of moral guidance. They grope in the dark in a world where fathers are busy with young trophy wives to notice the struggles that their children go through as they grow up.

Still on life on the rave, ‘Favela on Blast’, a documentary about the explosion of funk, a music genre that mutates into a culture and then a movement in Rio de Janeiro, which was screened on Friday night, explores the complexities of the other side of the economic divide, the ghetto. With the entry of Baile funk in the ghetto comes a change of fortunes for the protagonists and the rest of the community has one long bash which does not really change their lives for the better but they have fun. The music exposes the problems of the ghetto but really does not give a solution. Some of the songs seem to glorify violence and sex. But the beat makes everyone go gaga.

It is perhaps the women funkieros who attempt at liberation and initiating change, leaving their work as house helps and tossing their hats into the funk ring. They then go on and tell off men who think the place of the woman is in the kitchen.

The documentary by Wesley Pentz and Leanoro HBL explores the lives of the Baile Funk, disc jockeys, musicians, dancers, and the party culture in the favelas of Rio and the life behind the party. It is a worthy social comment. Above all, it shows a positive transition towards progressive values such as hard work and education.

And then there was ‘Los Bastardos’ by Amat Escalant, which explores the plight of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles, California. Life hits them hard. They talk about unfair wages, horror stories of rape and kidnappings and the people for whom they work, who lead comfortable lives at their expense. Escalante sketches the trials and tribulations of these poor, uneducated men far from their families, who stand at corners every day waiting for someone to offer then some backbreaking but badly-paid work. Then while at it they have to endure ethnic taunts. Soon enough, the men become vicious and turn murderous. As the movie concludes with two gunshots, one has no doubt that irrepressible class resentment is turning the workers into vicious machines.