OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS (LA VIRGEN DE LOS SICARIOS), directed by Oscar nominee Barbet Schroeder (REVERSAL OF FORTUNE), has a message. The message appears to be that a violent society will eventually desensitize its population to acts of violence on its streets. Then again, perhaps that's reading too much into the plot. Maybe it's just a love story between two people during troubled times.
The film is set in Medelln, Colombia, where the streets constantly erupt with the sounds of gunfire like cars backfiring. The night is filled with explosions as well since the drug traffickers always set off a large and colorful display whenever they successfully smuggle drugs into the United States.
Against this backdrop, fiftyish Fernando (Germn Jaramillo) takes on a new lover, a sixteen-year-old kid and killer named Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros). The two of them delight in tossing electronic equipment out of the twenty story window of Fernando's apartment. When a "punk" next door plays his drums too loud each night, Fernando asks Alexis to kill him, which he does without compunction. With the drummer gone, Fernando begins to have trouble sleeping. He's not sure if the buzzing he hears is his conscience or the crickets. Since he's conscience challenged, it has to be the crickets.
Shot on high definition digital video, the film does have a compelling immediacy. What it doesn't have are characters whom we care one wit about. Live or die, we couldn't care less.
OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS runs 1:38. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. It is rated R for "strong violence, language, sexuality and drug content" and would be acceptable for high school seniors and older.
The film opens nationwide in the United States today, Friday, September 28, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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