Tempestad review: A solid documentary with an interesting subject that suffers from a drifting camera and an overlong running time.
Hailing from Mexico, Tempestad shares a lot with one of 2015’s great documentaries, David Sington’s The Fear Of 13. While that film was guided by the film’s subject on-screen, rather eloquently describing his ordeal, Tempestad almost does the opposite. Here, our subjects describe their past via audio only, the visuals rather skilfully swapped for sometimes random, sometimes relevant footage.
Tatiana Huezo‘s film tackles the subject of ‘Pagadores,’ groups of people that are thrown into jail after being charged with human trafficking, with the authorities that conduct it, declaring that they are paying a debt to society and a blow to organised crime by cleaning up the streets. This is the tale of one of the victims, a young mother who is thrown into a private prison which is controlled by the ruthless cartels. The story is told via the first person, one we never see, over footage of a seemingly endless road trip from Matamoros to the bright lights of Cancun – a journey of some 1,250 miles. However, cinematographer Ernesto Pardo’s camera captures a very different picture of Mexico. Gone are the sun-soaked streets and palm trees,and ever visible is the bleak, rain-sodden reality of the southern part of the country.
Heuzo’s film clearly has a story to tell, and for the first 30-40 minutes does so well, but suffering from an over-long running time of 105 minutes, it struggles to maintain the momentum and the viewers’ full attention throughout. With stunning photography and, at times, superb editing, its intentions are good, but when the visuals slowly sway towards unrelated material to what’s being described, one’s interest starts to wain.
Tempestad review by Paul Heath at the Berlin Film festival 2016.
Tempestad will see a release in 2016.
