Amat Escalante's Heli--my take different from the reviewers'

[raquelita]

Worth going onto www.imdb.com to read the way reviewers discuss our local hero's latest film, Heli, which incidentally filled the main floor and 2.5 balconies at the Juarez last night. Recommended expat viewing. Yes the movie has a heavy dose of violence but also many other threads: Mexican family life of a certain type, shift work in an auto factory, everyday use of both native plants & modern medical care, abortion laws, and even an inside joke about Mexican education. Looks as if much of Heli was shot nearby. It's said the content was controversial at Cannes but even so the judges named Escalante the Director of the Year. Heli will be released commercially August 9. I don't know whether that includes Guanajuato. If you do, let us know.

[colleen]

Shit!! You watched this, Rochelle? There was nothing at IMDB. Or at least I didn't find anything. Here's a link from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/...013-review

This could be filmed in Guanajuato Centro and I wouldn't go to see it. No thanks to violence and sex.

[raquelita]

So far at the Film Festival I've seen a film where country people retell what they know about a hanging a hundred years ago, one about a young woman sentenced to prison for killing her mother (maybe she did, maybe she didn't), a surprisingly upbeat film about Colombian teenagers making the best of city life when their family breaks apart, a lengthy, depressing film about the failure of foreign aid in Haiti, a short documentary where women talk of their degradation of women in the Dem Republic of Congo, I could go on . . . Some of these I wandered into, some I chose but, although some might, I do not consider Escalante's film exploitational or divorced from important Mexican realities that anyone reading a newspaper is exposed to. If the critics want to ignore the less sensational parts of the movie, well that kind of narrow visioin permeates much coverage about Mexico. (Heli (2013) is on imdb - that's how I found the reviews.)

[roberb7]

Here's the IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2852376

I saw the line from the Teatro Principal into well into Baratillo on Wednesday night. I had already read a couple of reports about the film in AM, but I didn't go in because I was told that it wasn't subtitled. I can just wait for the official release on Aug. 9.

I went to see "Welcome to Argentina" (original title: "Mariage ? Mendoza") today. (IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1721478 ). Very funny film, and a very good advertisement for Argentina. Well worth seeing, when it gets broader distribution, or comes out in DVD.

And "Welcome to Argentina" came with an unexpected bonus. There was no admission charge, so I got a look at the inside of Teatro Juarez for free; didn't even have to pay the usual 35 pesos.

[raquelita]

The version shown had English subtitles.

[raquelita]

To see Escalante being interviewed by The Guardian + non-violent clips from the movie Google: Escalante Heli interview.

[raquelita]

You may have seen one of Heli's stars in the Mercado Hidalgo where her day job is selling candy. After two rounds of auditions, Amat Escalante picked her to play the woman detective in the film.