La virgen de los sicarios

I saw the film at the Jerusalem Film Festival. It was a rather late screening, but the viewers were glued to their seats. It's a very gripping movie and extremely subversive in themes, language and visuals. It's very anti current-day Colombia, and no wonder the production didn't go very smoothly. Still I admire the support the film got from `official' institutions in Medellion. It's subversive in themes, because we basically have a gay couple, an older man (about 40-50) who indulges in having sex with minor boys (who do this willingly, and yet, it's rather shocking to the average viewer) in return for financial support, or rather indulging the boys in whatever they want to do. The couple goes around the city and is critical of every facet of the city – and rightly so – yet the tone is overtly cynical and `evil'. The lead boy, Alexis, goes around and kills whomever is threatening him and his sugar-daddy – I think he executed 4 people once a confrontation was about to happen, and 4 more were other kids who were after him. S this shooting spree is depicted in a somewhat accepting manner, as if this is the way to do these things in Colombia. They ridicule almost every aspect of life – church, police, government, the drug lords, poor and beggars, the bourgeoisie, other gays, and even themselves. In that respect, it's a very Pasolini movie, although the realism here is a real one and not made for the sake of a socialist agenda. The writer and his two boy-lovers are very lost, although they always know where they are, and the ending is pretty bad, as expected. The film shows no hope for the Colombian people, as they are stuck in a country ran by corrupt officials, gangs and drug lords. The writer has great lines, one of my favorite was about him hating people who whistle, because they shouldn't try and imitate the art that was given to the birds… A good movie, with a 7/10 as far as I can say. Acting-wise – since I don't speak Spanish, it was credible to my ears, though the boys did seem to quote their lines mechanically at times.

Hi, I was reading about the comments of the movie "La virgen de los sicarios"... some people think that there is bad acting in this movie, and i am disagree absolutely... I live in Cali, Colombia and i can assure you that what you see in the film is exactly what you can see in the real live in some poor parts of the colombian cities... i am talking about everything: the way people talk, the way they move, all is very real... if you live in this country, you can understand that the actors in the movie are not acting... they are living!!! because that what you see in the movie is what we are in Colombia. Thanks for your attention.

A middle-aged Colombian writer, disgusted with life and contemptuous of religion, becomes involved sexually and romantically with teen-aged Medellin boys who kill effortlessly and with little provocation. At first appalled, he eventually grows addicted to the deaths the boys bring about, their magical ability to resolve the annoyances of everyday life, such as noisy neighbors and aggressive cab subway riders. The plot has some really astonishing surprises, and the taut nearly flawless script (in Spanish) is a treasure. The film , obviously the product of a philosophically inclined mind (Schroeder studied philosophy at the Sorbonne), is a thinking filmgoer's feast and works on many different levels. The main character's ambivalence about religion (the film's title, and the fact that the writer keeps finding himself in cathedrals) furnishes much matter for reflection. This film is not for everyone--- it is, even for these times, shocking. Those more comfortable with the blowsy and predictable product issuing from Hollywood committees should probably avoid it. But those who treasure the ability of film to explore provocative and original ideas will love it.

Our Lady Of Assassins showed at the Brisbane International Film Festival. It left me initially distraught and other members of the audience obviously felt the same. After a bit of thought, I realised that it was indeed a powerful and beautifully created way of presenting the desperate nature of life in Medellin. The main character, who was born and raised in the town, remembers how potentially violent it was even 40 years earlier, yet seems to be shocked by how much it has decayed. It is strange that he is also quite complicit in inciting violence, while seeming to be just looking for love.

The film forces the audience to question the day to day value of life and just how much violence we can allow ourselves to tolerate. But in Medellin the solution is certainly not in the hands of just one person.

A great trio of films showing the broad story of the cocaine phenomena would be "Our Lady Of Assassins", Ted Demme's "Blow" and "Traffic".

Prepared as we are for the image of Columbia that CNN shoves down our throats- full of Narcos, Paracos and desperate politicians-, there is no way to predict the surreal way of life the characters in this movie pass through. This is a film that penetrates into a very real Medellin, where nothing is certain and everything is so vulnerable that human life seems to exist only the instant in which it takes place. Medellin is like Fernando- the main character-, it is like his way of walking through a church in the feverishly catholic ambient of Latin America with his sixteen year old murderer lover- who is actually more like an angel fallen from grace. Alexis- the young shooter- is the result of a less than miserable way of life, where poverty and violence rape viciously at each other, almost to a point of neutralization, what seems perverse is in the end the most innocent. This film is strong and profound, it should be forced on all news spokesmen with Colombian corpses in the background: `Lady this is Medellin, not Switzerland'.