Left Field Cinema

La Zona’s opening sequence recalls the beginning of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, with dreamy slow-motion shots of a wealthy, picket fenced, suburban neighbourhood but while Lynch’s camera dives down into the undergrowth of a well cut lawn to reveal a seething mass of insects, La Zona’s camera pulls up to reveal a hillside of slums sprawling out surrounding this wealthy enclave.

Set in Mexico, The Zone is a fortress of sorts, containing a suburban idyll, a bubble of wealth surrounded by the kind of South American favelas we are well used to seeing in films from Pixote to City of God. After what might be termed an ‘act of god’ three street kids are able to gain access over the high walls and into The Zone with plans of robbery on the other side. Their crime spree ends messily resulting with several deaths and the youngest of the gang trapped and on the run inside The Zone.

Like a Neighbourhood Watch scheme gone mad, the residents association made up of previously respectable doctors, architects, housewives and the like, decide its best to cover up the deaths and to hunt down and murder the boy. Meanwhile a stubborn detective irritated by the attempts of the residents to bribe him off and smelling a rat, decides to “do the right thing for once” and begins to investigate what is going on.

So with the dual pressures of the boy trapped somewhere within The Zone and the detective from outside asking questions, the gated community begins to transform into something far more sinister and Orwellian.

There is some sense of Hitchcock here as we see strains of the classic wrong man scenario played out. Both the citizens and the police ultimately fail to behave morally when acting as a group and it is left to powerless individuals to try and act correctly where the mob fail. Drawing a comparison with the conventions of Film Noir might also be apt as flawed characters succumb to hopeless situations.

This is the director Rodrigo Plá’s first feature and its pretty impressive, it works well enough as a straight forward thriller but its lasting strength lies in its ability to paint a dystopian nightmare that feels credible and of our time. The plot really drives this film along, at times Plá could do with taking his foot off the pedal and give us a deeper look at the people involved, there are some interesting characters here but they do feel a little unexplored. Individuals who at first are protected or tolerated by the community end up its prisoners, the changing roles that people take on or are forced to accept are fascinating but little time is given to the examination of these changes in the characters, it just kinda happens.

This is no science fiction film but the scenario it puts forward has a certain sci-fi feel to it, the walled city, teeming with C.C.T.V and patrolled by a private security force. Really though it’s just a small elaboration on how rich and poor coexist in cities all over the world rather than a radical leap into tomorrow.

Finally this could be read as less a warning from the future and more an allegory of Mexico’s close proximity to the U.S. and their relationship at the present time. Beyond this it’s a film about mans fallibility and is even handed in its portrayal of the different people involved and their ability to do right as well as wrong.

O. Paterson