re:mote voices

Title:Battle In Heaven [Batalla en el Cielo]
Cast: Marcos Hernández, Anapola Mushkadiz, Bertha Ruiz
Director: Carlos Reygadas

Marcos is the General's handyman/driver. His duties amount to overseeing the raising and lowering of the flag every day, and driving the General's spoilt daughter about. Marcos has driven Ana about since she was a little girl, picking her from school, taking her shopping. Now Ana is a young woman, and Marcos is the only person close to the General, who knows that the General's tattooed, piereced, dready daughter is working in an exclusive brothel for extra money and the experience.

Battle In Heaven is a Mexican film that follows the contrasts between rich and poor, young and old, the lifestyle differences between Marcos and Ana. Ana swans about as she likes, while Marcos and his wife have done something terrible, something desperate to get some money. Marcos and his wife have been together a long time, and they still love each other, even if they have both become fat and ugly. But at the same time, Marcos is attracted to Ana, and as such confesses his crime to her. This is a complication, especially when Marcos tells his wife, who believes that Ana can't be trusted, and that something must be done.

Some will wax lyrical about the depth of Battle In Heaven, about the love triangle and its power. But to a degree, it is possible to read too much into the film. An aging man is tempted by a young woman, takes advantage of her when she offers him the chance, says something he shouldn't and has to deal with the consequences. The film has a particularly detached style, which again has lead to some intellectual discussion. But what it really means is that you never really get into the characters. At key points in the film, the director decides not to focus on the grit of the plot, instead he goes off for a wander, taking his camera to see what he can see.

The poster for Battle In Heaven urges caution, warning that this film contains scenes of real sex. To a degree that makes the film controversial, any hint of anything approaching real sex being enough for that. Though the reality of the sex is something I wasn't entirely convinced by - I suspect the use of a plastic phallus along the same lines as In The Cut or Festival. Regardless it sort of becomes a false controversy in real terms - its been done before, and certainly some people will be shocked, but those are the people who will be shocked every time, no matter what the film in question is. In fact the scenes most likely to shock the comfortable viewer are those with two naked fat people, where you don't actually see anything explicit.

Over all Battle In Heaven is an odd film. It is gritty, and not especially pleasant or comfortable viewing. The details of the poor family and religious events which work from the background to the fore being where the film has some strength. Though of the films to have broken out from Mexico in the last year, it certainly isn't the best of the bunch.