On eve of Mexico's bicentennial, film 'El Infierno' is a blunt political provocation

There is vengeance and betrayal, greed and lust, a prodigal son and an heir lost.

The new Mexican film "El Infierno," by director Luis Estrada, is packed with plot elements straight out of high Greek or Shakespearean drama. Yet in its acid portrayal of how the drug-trafficking business leads to the downfall of a single man, and then an entire town, the movie plays out as absurd and darkly comedic, the sort of effect mastered by the Coen brothers in films like "Fargo" or "No Country for Old Men."

Watch the official trailer for "El Infierno," in Spanish, embedded above. (Readers are warned that the trailer is graphic. The film's title is somewhat inelegantly translated into English as "Hell.")

It gets under the skin. Throughout a screening on Sunday night at a cineplex in downtown Mexico City, as the characters in "El Infierno" descended into an out-of-control cycle of violence and bloodshed, the audience couldn't stop laughing. The laughter was genuine but uneasy. "El Infierno" is a fictional depiction of a real-life drama that engulfs Mexico day after day, a drama over which the average Mexican feels little control.

The story follows Benny Garcia, a man who is kicked back to his poor rural town somewhere in northern Mexico after 20 years of living in the United States as an illegal immigrant. He returns to learn that his brother died in violent circumstances. Little by little, seeing no other options for work, he picks up where his brother left off, joining the local drug-trafficking group.

The money starts rolling in for Benny, but as he sinks deeper into the narco trade, the bodies start piling up around him. Throughout "El Infierno," corruption and greed seem to infect even the most innocent of character types, not just police and priests, but also the aged and young teens.

The movie's ripped-from-the-headlines feel is stark. "El Infierno" depicts acts of extreme violence that have actually occurred in Mexico's drug war. People are beheaded, and then heads are rolled into a public space. Hit men chop off enemies' ears or fingers, or appear stuffing their victims into vats of acid. One man is left dead on a roadside sitting against a tree and wearing a sombrero, just like a murdered police officer was left in July 2008 in the state of Sinaloa (link in Spanish, with photo).

Produced with heavy government funding, the release of "El Infierno" just before the start of massive celebrations for Mexico's bicentennial of independence is bluntly provocative. One scene depicts the town's main capo in friendly photographs with former Mexican President Vicente Fox and Pope John Paul II. Another scene in the office of a corrupt federal investigator takes a direct swipe at President Felipe Calderon, whose framed portrait hangs on a wall while the investigator makes a direct call to a drug lord.

Estrada has tread politically controversial territory before. His 1999 film "Herod's Law" tackles the culture of corruption of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico as a quasi-authoritarian state more than 70 years. "I'm surprised that 10 years later I realize we're much worse off," the filmmaker told the AFP.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Video credit: YouTube

Comments

[Mike]

I have this movie, you guys should see it, it's a really really good movie, they have all the power, money, sex, drugs, but it comes with a price and that's how things are in Mexico, hit it right on the target.

[Armando]

I already saw the movie 7 times and I like to share the DVD with my gringos friends and they have a different reaction to this movie, its between insane, crazy and sad, how simple you can live and die in Mexico...of course thanks to the rich people who owns Mexico.

[Jenny]

This movie sounds great! You should see "El Superstar" starring Danny Trejo. Not many people have heard of it and it hasn't been publicized much, but it's great. You can see it at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex (9/17/10 through 9/23/10): Daily @ 1:00, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40 & 10:15 Danny Trejo will be there!!!!

[MadMaxFan]

Art imitating life. In fact, I think they left out some things that have happened that only people stoned on powerful drugs could have done, heartless.

[Jillian Galloway]

$113 billion is spent on marijuana every year in the U.S., and because of the federal prohibition *every* dollar of it goes straight into the hands of criminals. Far from preventing people from using marijuana, the prohibition instead creates zero legal supply amid massive and unrelenting demand. The scale of the harm this causes far exceeds any benefit obtained from keeping marijuana illegal.

According to the ONDCP, at least sixty percent of Mexican drug cartel money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., they protect this revenue by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering countless innocent people.

If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so NOW, but if we can't then we must legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or the other, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes - no business can withstand the loss of sixty percent of its revenue!

To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 "foot soldiers" and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and it's now believed that the cartels are "morphing into, or making common cause with, what would be considered an insurgency" (Secretary of State Clinton, 09/09/2010). The longer the cartels are allowed to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they'll get and the more our own personal security will be put in jeopardy.

[Alejandro]

One question: when do we get to see it in Los Angeles?