The Box (2021)
(La caja)
Country: MEX/VEN/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 92m
Director: Lorenzo Vigas
Cast: Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete, Dulce Alexa Alfaro
Synopsis:
A Mexican teenager travels to a remote area where his father's remains have been found in a common grave. On the way back he suddenly notices a man resembling his father at the roadside, and concludes that the box containing his father's ashes actually contains another's. He decides to stay, but is it to reconnect with his father, or for the sake of this nameless victim of labour trafficking?
Review:
Constructed along the lines of a mystery-thriller, Vigas's film addresses a very real and profoundly moral dilemma facing so-called economic 'survivors' and their exploitation of a cheap and apparently inexhaustible labour market. Whilst acknowledging a debit balance in this regard, he also finds time for the human stories behind the statistics: we watch horror-stricken as a child struggles between regaining the approval of his true father, who in turn regains a son, even if so doing makes him a murderer. All this as a desolate landscape, captured in high-angle long shots, highlights the insignificance of God's expendable creatures.
(La caja)
Country: MEX/VEN/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 92m
Director: Lorenzo Vigas
Cast: Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete, Dulce Alexa Alfaro
Synopsis:
A Mexican teenager travels to a remote area where his father's remains have been found in a common grave. On the way back he suddenly notices a man resembling his father at the roadside, and concludes that the box containing his father's ashes actually contains another's. He decides to stay, but is it to reconnect with his father, or for the sake of this nameless victim of labour trafficking?
Review:
Constructed along the lines of a mystery-thriller, Vigas's film addresses a very real and profoundly moral dilemma facing so-called economic 'survivors' and their exploitation of a cheap and apparently inexhaustible labour market. Whilst acknowledging a debit balance in this regard, he also finds time for the human stories behind the statistics: we watch horror-stricken as a child struggles between regaining the approval of his true father, who in turn regains a son, even if so doing makes him a murderer. All this as a desolate landscape, captured in high-angle long shots, highlights the insignificance of God's expendable creatures.
(La caja)
Country: MEX/VEN/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 92m
Director: Lorenzo Vigas
Cast: Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete, Dulce Alexa Alfaro
Synopsis:
A Mexican teenager travels to a remote area where his father's remains have been found in a common grave. On the way back he suddenly notices a man resembling his father at the roadside, and concludes that the box containing his father's ashes actually contains another's. He decides to stay, but is it to reconnect with his father, or for the sake of this nameless victim of labour trafficking?
Review:
Constructed along the lines of a mystery-thriller, Vigas's film addresses a very real and profoundly moral dilemma facing so-called economic 'survivors' and their exploitation of a cheap and apparently inexhaustible labour market. Whilst acknowledging a debit balance in this regard, he also finds time for the human stories behind the statistics: we watch horror-stricken as a child struggles between regaining the approval of his true father, who in turn regains a son, even if so doing makes him a murderer. All this as a desolate landscape, captured in high-angle long shots, highlights the insignificance of God's expendable creatures.