To ‘Heli’ and Back for Escalante

Date:

I’m a huge fan of Amat Escalante‘s debut film Sangre, but I was baffled and unimpressed by the Un Certain Regard screening I caught last May of his sophomore piece Los Bastardos. In many ways the story-line of a pair of young migrant Mexican workers who commit a brutal crime reminded me of certain facets from Haneke’s Funny Games. I expect the auteur filmmaker to bring much of the same provocation and similar visual treatment to his next work, Heli.

Scripted by Escalante, this will be set in the world of Mexican drug dealers and I wonder how far the filmmaker who favors “realism” is willing to go to achieve an aesthetic truth. One thing is for sure, it may be an ideal companion piece to another film I recently saw about gangs and border towns in Sin Nombre.

Variety reports that the pic will produced by Jaime Romandia’s Mantarraya Produciones, with filming to begin in a more tolerable month for filming a movie in Mexico (October).

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society) and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

Share post:

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Popular

More like this
Related

La cocina | Review

Soap Kitchen: Ruizpalacios Underwhelms & Over Bakes Food Drama Making...

Bonjour Tristesse | Review

Lifestyles of the Rich, Conflicted & Coddled: Dull Vacation...

Most People Die on Sundays | Review

A Month of Sundays: Said Squeezes Magic Out of...