Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for jungle movies like this. Films where the jungle slowly ebbs away at the ego of each character until it merges with the forest and they disappear. Embrace of the Serpent, Apocalypse Now, and The Mercy of the Jungle are three great examples of this. In each of these films, the jungle is expansive and labyrinthine. As every part of it looks the same, it’s easy to see how you can begin to lose track of place and time – did I pass this tree 15 minutes ago, this rock looks familiar, etc. And once you’ve lost your place in time, the jungle starts to consume you, slowly dissolving your ego away.
Tragic Jungle stands out from the bunch in bringing the jungle to life. It uses the sounds of the Howler Monkey and Jaguar to turn it into a threatening physical entity. Their constant roars and grumbles occupying the sonic space are unnerving. The unease is further emphasized by the videos of the two animals mixed in with the main narrative. It makes it feel like the animals are just around the corner, waiting for the inevitable demise of the human protagonists. This is their home, and the Director, Yulene Olaizola, makes that clear.
The only character that seems comfortable in the jungle is the anonymous runaway, a young black Belizean woman chased across the River Hondo into Mexico by her hunters. It’s not clear if she’s escaped the gun of her hunter or not. But once she appears to a group of Mexican rubber harvesters out of the forest, she assumes her role as the Ixtabay woman, a legendary Mayan demon that appears from the forest to lure men to their deaths with her beauty. From this point, she’s completely silent among her new captors. However, her stoical face and slight smile to all the men that approach her, make it appear that she’s always in control.
Her character is exoticized by the Mexican rubber harvesters because of her race. Unlike them, who are a mix of Mexican mestizo and Mexican indigenous heritages, she is a black creole Belizean woman. She’s as unfamiliar to them as the jungle they’re working in, so it’s not surprising that they link her appearance to the supernatural.
Her exoticization also reflects the erasure of Afro-Mexicans from contemporary and historical Mexico. In using a Black creole woman from Belize as the Ixtabay woman, Tragic Jungle further ‘others’ the Black creole women of Mexico. It portrays Blackness as something exotic and unfamiliar to the Mexican characters of both indigenous and mixed Spanish and indigenous backgrounds, which enforces the foreignness of Blackness in Mexico despite it’s own Afro-Mexican community and links to African slavery. Because the Black characters are not Mexican, because they are exoticized and made to feel foreign, and because of the context of historical and present erasure of Afro-Mexicans in Mexico that is slowly gaining recognition, Tragic Jungle contributes to the systematic erasure of Blackness in Mexico.
Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.
Shot beautifully as always with Alfonso Cuaron, this film follows two young privileged students on a road trip. They travel across Mexico unaware of the ‘real’ Mexico they pass by.
One of my personal favourites, El Infierno is a dark comedy about Mexico during the Mexican Drug War. It follows Benny, recently deported from the U.S. who finds his home-town empty and without any jobs. As a result, he pretty much stumbles into drug trafficking. This one points a comic finger at politicians, drug trafficking, and organized corruption.
Directed by the guy behind the True Detective (Cary Fukunaga), Sin Nombre is an action-adventure film that spans Central America. It is an introduction to both the vicious Mara Salvatrucha gang and ‘La Bestia’ the train network that many Central Americans use to try and reach the U.S. It is gripping right until the final minutes and is complemented by some beautiful scenery.
This Spanish/Mexican film is Guillermo del Toro’s most famous and best. It’s fantasy matches the imagination of the Studio Ghibli animated classics. Set in Civil War Spain, this film is filmed along the boundary between reality and mythical. It received a 22 minute standing ovation after it’s screening at Cannes, and would be placed higher on this list if it’s honours were not shared with Spain.
Heli is brutal. It is a shocking examination of the effect of the Mexican drug war on a small town in northern Mexico. Director Amat Escalante won the Best Director award at Cannes for this one – a testament to it’s barren landscapes and bare editing. One word of warning before you watch this one though – it isn’t happy or light-hearted in any way.
Another debut feature from one of Mexico’s most well known directors. Cronos is Guillermo del Toro’s Vampire horror flick that is characterised by his imagination. Eternal life, Ron Perlman, and a cute relationship between a granddaughter and grandfather that make this film great.
Another brutal drug war flick, Miss Bala follows the life of a beauty paegeant queen who gets trapped within the wrath of a drug cartel. Gang leader Lino will haunt you for a while after this one – he is crafty and elusive. The film is gripping, and horribly fatalistic, just like Heli.
At last, a cheesy comedy to lift your spirits. Instructions Not Included follow the feel-good story of a Mexican playboy who travels to the United States to return his American daughter to her mother. The film will have you laughing and crying for a very entertaining 2 hours.
A Mexican-U.S. film about American Labour Leader, Cesar Chavez sees Michael Pena in his best role. The biographical film follows Chavez from his move to Delano, California though many of the non-violent campaigns he led. Alongside McFarland, Cesar Chavez is a timely portrait of migrant families in the San Joaquin Valley.
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