OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS
Colombia, 2000, 97 minutes, Colour.
German Jaramillo, Anderson Ballesteros, Juan David Restrepo, Manuel Busquets.
Directed by Barbet Schroeder.
Our Lady of the Assassins has been adapted from one of his novels by the famous Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo. The original title in Spanish is La Virgen de los Sicarios.
The film is directed by Barbet Schroeder, who worked in his early years in France and then moved, in the late `80s, to Hollywood with such films as Barfly and then Reversal of Fortune, Single White Female, Before and After, and Desperate Measures. Here he returns to Colombia and films in Spanish. The film also has a strong Colombian cast.
The film is set in Medellin and shows the affluence of the city - even to the celebration of shiploads of cocaine getting into the United States with fireworks in the city. However, it also shows the lack of value of life with the young thugs riding motorbikes, listening to hi-fi and shooting one another on angry whim. (Schroeder is said to have advised the novelist to eliminate some of the killings from the screenplay - however, there are so many killings that the audience is still very disturbed by them.)
The film shows the chaos of Latin- American economies and society in the 1990s. The central character of the film, based on the novelist, is homosexual and the film focuses on his relationship to a young man that he found in a Medellin brothel. He is one of the members of the gangs and shoots at whim until he is shot and, by irony, the novelist takes up with his assassin - and he is ultimately killed.
One of the difficulties in identifying with the film, although its themes are most powerful, is that the central character is snobbish and elitist, looking down on everybody and mouthing words against God, religion and society. However, he does spend a lot of time trying to hear the silence of God and sitting in churches. However, the film seems very nihilistic in its approach. The other difficulty is that as a mature writer with a strong sense of himself, the screenplay shows him able to relate only to young men from the street who are aged about twenty.
1. A controversial film, a European director looking at the violence in a country like Colombia with its gangs and the consequences of political and economic mismanagement as well as the drug trade.
2. A film from Colombia, about Colombia, with a Colombian perspective? Colombia in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century? The perspective of the novelist and screenplay writer? The perspective of the international director whose roots are in Colombia?
3. The Medellin settings, the vistas of the city, the buildings, the mountains, the suburbs and the countryside? The streets, cafés, apartments, the brothel? The significance of the churches - and the shrines, the schools? The background musical score and its atmosphere?
4. The novelist and the semi-autobiographical story: the successful professional returning to his roots, his family dead, his loss of interest in life? The background of his homosexuality and his ability to relate to young men and not to others? His memories of the past, his nostalgia? His trying to understand Medellin and its economy, its poverty, its affluence, the drugs? The violence and the shootings, the gun culture? The young and their inability to be silent, the punk drummer, his friends and their wanting to listen to loud music? Their wanting everything American - Reeboks and jeans and T-shirts, television? Their relationship to their family, sexuality? Religion?
5. The character of the novelist? At the brothel, returning after thirty years to Colombia, meeting his friends? Taking up with Alexis and his relationship? The apartment inherited from his sister, buying the hi-fi - but eventually throwing it out, Alexis shooting the television? Their wandering the city together, the dangerous suburbs, the cafés? The friends from the brothel and the warnings about the street gangs? The visits to the churches? Going with Alexis to his devout pilgrimage to Our Lady Help of Christians? His growing bemusement, the attraction of Alexis, the violence and wanting it to stop, yet getting used to the killings? The death of Alexis and his finding Wilma? Repeating the pattern? And Wilma's death? His wanting vengeance himself? His inability to shoot Wilma? Identifying his body at the morgue, going back to his apartment and closing himself in?
6. Alexis and his background, family, the scenes with his mother after his death? At the brothel, falling in love with Fernando? Accompanying him - the sexual liaison, company, the pilgrimage, the meals, at home, the hi-fi, the television with the President talking about economies? His whims in the shootings - the hijacker of the car in the street and his later being shot, the people in the tram criticising, the punk drummer - and Alexis's attitude is that they had it coming? The warnings and his shooting the people on the bikes? Knowing that he was to be a victim? The precariousness of life, transitory, getting as much out of it as possible? His reaction to listening to Maria Callas, his not being able to concentrate to read a book? The irony of his religiosity - the importance of the pilgrimage, praying before the statue of Mary, the big candle? Yet going out and killing on whim, and his sexual relationships?
7. Wilma and his hunger, Fernando giving him the meal, the return home, the same pattern as with Alexis? Their going out? The irony of the little boy telling him the truth? His getting the gun but his inability to kill Wilma? Wilma's death - and the irony of gang and family killings? Identifying the body?
8. The people in the brothel, the young people on the street, the violence, the warnings? The human touch with Wilma wanting to buy the refrigerator for his mother and having it delivered?
9. A picture of Latin- American culture? The aftermath of 500 years of European settlement, the Spanish tradition and religion and religiosity, the hot-blooded violence and the culture? Poverty, the drug culture and the Escobars and their contribution to the city? The elitism of Fernando and his condemnation of the culture, yet his finally closing himself off from it rather than contributing anything to its change?
