Satanas(Directed by Andres Biaz in 2007, Colombia)
Three parallel stories that occur on the eve of the infamous Pozzetto Massacre, involving a femme-fatal that cons rich men, a priest who's in love with his housekeeper and a tired-of-life veteran of war who has become a teacher who desires one of his female students. Three characters looking for love, redemption, and second chances in a world reigned by their own fears, temptations, passions and pains, which will end up in a trigger effect of tragic events.
The movie, Santas, shows many sides of people. It at first showed the beauty, then it just showed the darker side of many people. In the beginning it showed a Professor helping a young girl learn English, a beautiful part which is quickly forgotten because of the mother who killed her three children because she couldn't feed them. She is an interesting character, I think she may truly be insane. She is obsessed with the thought of the devil, which he no doubt manifests himself in others actions, and correctly tells the priest that the devil is coming for him. The priest makes a correct decision and knows that he cannot continue with his duties because he has another calling, so at least he does the right thing and resigns from his post. Also, the poor priest was probably wondering why all the poor souls that come into his church end up being murders, I sure would be after that woman and the professor. The tax collect I think took the money scandaling job because she wanted to start a new life and that was a chance. After she couldn't do it anymore, she quit and got a good job and one she seemed to enjoy. The professor I think was a time bomb, the pressure of the Korean War and then something set him off and he was taken out of the current time and mindset. He was set off and was thrown back into the war, and who knows what happened there or in his childhood. But I think the overall movie was about forgiveness because it seemed to be a continual theme. The tax collector and her stickers, showing how she felt, her justice of her rape, and refusing contact with her past. The priest and burning himself with a cigarette while asking for forgiveness and strength to do the right thing. The professor for his thoughts, his loneliness, his Dr. Hyde inside of himself, which I think he tried to show others by getting them to read the book, as he told his student there are many truths inside of it. Of course, the women in the jail she asks for forgiveness, but I don't really think she understood the reason why she is there. She may have set her children free, but not in an appropriate manner. All characters in this movie show that there are many secrets and sides to everyone.
ReplyDeleteSatanas
ReplyDeleteEscrito por: Erica Erkkila
Satanas was a movie that made the viewer question society and sanity. When the actor Damian Alcazar kills his first victim, the viewer must wonder if this would have happened if the people of Bogota would have been a bit nicer to the killer. This thought was even more confusing when the serial killer goes to the library to visit the librarian. He does not kill her, but hugged her. This makes the viewer wonder if anyone would have been killed if the killer had been treated with more respect, as the librarian treated him. However, the viewer must also wonder if the killer, Elias Delgado, was mentally sound. Psychologists could make an argument that Delgado was far from mentally stable, which may have stemmed from PTSD after his war experience, or it could have been a combination of his mother's nagging personality combined with his father's suicide and predisposition to mental illness. Whatever the issue was for Delgado, the viewer understands from the start that there is something not right, especially when the "lonely" Delgado looks at his pupil with a near sexual lust. The viewer could almost see in Delgado's eyes that there was something wrong. It was like all the reading he had done of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had distorted his concept of reality, and that is why he felt so compelled to kill. Satanas made the viewer wonder if they treat strangers with enough kindness, and if they don't, they must wonder if the next person they are rude to will go mad as Delgado.