Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Astrid Rondero, Ferndanda Valadez
Starring: Juan Jesús Varela, Yadira Pérez, Alexis Varela, Sandra Lorenzano, Jairo
Hernández
It doesn't take a radical feminist to acknowledge that most of the
world's problems are caused by men. The root cause of such trouble is more
often than not the male ego, the primal desire to become the leader of the
tribe and prove that you're better than other men. In the violent world of
Mexico's drug cartels, the leaders of such tribes are constantly being
challenged by younger men with ruthless ambitions. Co-directors Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez's Sujo is centred on a young man caught up in this world, but it's a
tribute to the women who fight for a better life for their sons and
nephews on the fringes of this blood-soaked milieu.
When young sicario Josue (Juan Jesús Varela Hernández) kills his
cartel leader's son in a badly misjudged powerplay, Josue is quickly
executed out of revenge. This isn't enough to sate the cartel though; they
also want to murder Josue's four-year-old son Sujo (initially played
by Kevin Uriel Aguilar Luna). Sujo's aunt Nemesia (Yadira Perez Esteban) strikes a deal with the cartel, who agree to spare the child's life if
she gets him out of town (they fear the boy will come looking for revenge
later in life). But Nemesia secretly raises the boy like the Kents raising
Superman, trying her best to ensure he doesn't end up in a barrel like his
father.
As Nemesia explains at one point, her name translates as "Vengeance," but
she has no interest in violence. She refuses to even take ownership of
Josue's car, leaving it to rot in a ditch until the teenage Sujo (Juan Jesús Varela) brings it back to life years later. Names are important here. Sujo
spends his life wondering why his father gave him such an odd moniker. His
friend Jeremy (Jairo Hernández Ramírez) has been left with an
Anglo-Saxon name thanks to his own father's failed ambitions to move his
family to the US. The people here wear their names like scars left by
fathers whose dreams never came to pass.
The first half of Rondero and Valadez's film focusses on Sujo as a
child as he's raised by Nemesia and Jeremy's mother Rosalia (Karla Garrido). It's the most gripping part of the film as it's loaded with tension.
The filmmakers construct several key scenes as though influenced by
Spielberg's E.T., with the camera down low at young Sujo's height as various adult dramas
play out around him. In one nerve-wracking scene Sujo is hidden under a
table as an angry cartel leader comes to Rosalia's house looking for the
boy; the camera stays under the table with Sujo as we watch ominous
silhouettes through the tablecloth. The stress causes the child to lose
control of his bladder, but Rosalia reassures him that she'll clean it up,
a statement that echoes through the film. This is a story of women left to
mop up the mess left by male pride and ego.
The movie's second half loses much of its impetus as the teenage Sujo
leaves his rural home to build a new life in Mexico City. Taking a menial
job at a warehouse, Sujo begins sneaking into a college class until he's
rumbled by a teacher, Susan (Sandra Lorenzano), who takes pity on
him and takes him under her wing. The movie develops into a well-meaning
look at a young man trying to make the most of his life but it's rather
pedestrian in how it conveys this. Stripped of the tension of the movie's
earlier acts, it struggles to lure us back in and plays like a product of
a secular cousin of the Christian propaganda output of Angel
Studios. Sujo isn't naive enough to suggest that faith in God is enough to help
Mexico's many troubled young men though; rather it's up to themselves,
with some help from the women who see hope in their sad and angry
faces.
Sujo is in UK cinemas from
December 13th.
