La Zona

A Mexican film with a definite message regarding the dichotomisation of society into the haves and have-nots. As depicted in the film, the gulf between these groups is huge. Alejandro is the only child in a family that lives in a super-rich residential zone. This enclave is called La Zona and is overseen by a residential committee that tends to look after La Zona by bribing the cops to stay out of their affairs. Alejandros father is a member of this committee and is a moderate who tends to go along with the majority decision even when this is unwise. Alejandros mother, by contrast, is not of the insular mindset that most of the committee displays and is a voice of reason in the piece, although she does not influence events to any great extent.

The film’s events are shown almost entirely in a flashback. “Present time” is depicted in the initial scene, when we see the grand houses of La Zona reflected in the tinted windows of, as is revealed in the concluding scenes, the SUV belonging to Alejandro’s mother. These reflected images accurately convey an atmosphere of apartness that pervades the unreal and cosseted world of La Zona.

La Zona is shot on digital film that appears to vary in resolution from scene to scene. At times, when pixellation is particularly obvious, the images also appear pale and “washed out”. However, this was perhaps an artistic decision to ensure that the picture resembled the security camera footage (also digital) that features strongly in the film because of the high levels of security surveillance within La Zona. Overall, the film’s production is slick and effectively utilises CGI for the opening expository sequence of a butterfly flying across La Zona but being electrocuted on its fence, the slums visible in the background.

While there is, in reality, no specific residential neighbourhood in Mexico called La Zona, the concept of a super rich enclave with high security measures that keep out the super-poor neighbours is authentic and exists in Mexico today. A prominent theme is the bribery of the police and authorities, and the implicit idea that money in Mexico is power similarly reflects actualities. The instances of bribery in this film are cleverly presented to effectively maximise the situational tension and encapsulate the power dynamics between the authorities and the polarised socio economic groups. The fact that anything can be bought in Mexico is the unhappy message conveyed by the image of the unwanted corpses of thieves that are disposed of in La Zona’s trash bags. This idea is reflected in a more diluted form when we see that the poor come from the slums to work and perform menial duties in the wealthy enclave.

The events of the film are precipitated by a coming together of the disparate economic worlds, despite the security measures in place to prevent this from happening. The contrast between the poor masses and the wealthy few underlines the artificiality of La Zona’s community, and when Alejandro ventures out at the end we see a more realistic environment. Its reality, and poverty, is concisely communicated in these brief few concluding scenes, notably when the four men travelling on the back of a pickup truck pass Alejandro’s SUV. Funky latin hip hop music plays as credits roll, perhaps indicating the director’s optimistic frame of mind, which we can hope is justified.

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