Oro diablo

This excellent, unique film is the final part of a trilogy from Venezuelen director Jose Novoa. "Oro Diablo," or Devil's Gold is a savage tale of greed, corruption and child exploitation in the Amazon Jungle, where young people are enslaved by greedy landowners to extract gold from the mines. A lesson in ecology is cleverly combined with powerful drama and suspense. Early in the film a boy dies because of the mercury used in mining for gold, a method that is destroying the Rain Forest, and in turn, the World Environment. Nobody here cares, as long as the money keeps rolling in. Young children perform their impossibly strenuous jobs with machine guns pointed at their heads, knowing that one mistake, and they will be shot like animals. Out of this brutal landscape a romance develops between the young miner Cae, and the beautiful Isabel, a girl forced into prostitution because of a debt owed by her mother. Unflinchingly violent, this is not always easy to look at, especially since much of the brutality is directed at children. Novoa's earlier film "Sicario" was a great crime drama, but this final chapter has more of an emotional, and also romantic level, possibly because this script was written by a woman. The lead actors, Laureano Olivares (the star of Sicario) and Rocio Miranda have to be one of the most gorgeous and sexiest couples ever, and they melt the screen with their passionate and raw love story, a love that is constantly threatened by the sea of corruption in which they are enslaved. I think the term "potboiler" was invented for films like this; sweaty, tense and lurid tales set against the exotic jungle backdrop. The limited budget works for the film rather than against it, and the slightly grainy transfer is perfect for this one. Fine film that is both informative and fascinating, "Oro Diablo" is an important and visionary work that unfortunately has been seen by very few people, outside of it's native Venezuela, where this trilogy is well-known. Reminiscent of John Boorman's "Emerald Forest" this one is worth the effort it will take to track it down. Highest rating.

With "Oro diablo" (also known as "Garimpeiros"), José Novoa ended a trilogy started in 1994 with "Sicario" and followed in 1998 by "Huelepega". The trilogy was an effort to illustrate the everyday life of children and adolescents hit by extreme poverty in Latin America: in "Sicario" Novoa dealt with the problems of Colombian children exposed to drug traffic; and in "Huelepega" he showed the children of the street in Caracas, who are led to the cheapest and fastest way to 'get high', by smelling glue. In "Oro diablo" Novoa deals with the hopelessness of those who work in the gold mines in the Amazon jungle of Venezuela, or who live in towns that spurt around the mines, where violence is the way of living, workers are exploited and death rules.

"Oro diablo" also exposes the unpunished ecological devastation of the zone, produced by the savage exploitation of the gold mines, the toxic use of mercury and the silence of local governments.

Novoa's style owes both to action film and ethnographic documentary. His working method starts with the investigation of each subject matter, by which he collects direct information from the people who experience it. This time writer Sonia Chocrón, who wrote the screenplay, assisted him. Then he works with the children and teenagers, and somehow he manages to extract credible performances that harmonize with those of his professional cast: such are the cases of Laureano Olivares, who was in "Sicario", and Rocío Miranda, who plays Isabel, the leading character of "Oro diablo".

In Papayal, a town near a gold mine, Isabel's mother and her lover flee after stealing gold from a miner. Isabel is forced to pay the debt, but she runs away. After being caught by the police, she meets Cae (Olivares), a young man who is bought by a trader of cheap labor, and taken to the mine nearby Papayal. Isabel is forced to work in the town's brothel, where she is raped by ruthless Mooligan (Roberto Hernández), who also becomes her protector. But Isabel and Cae fall in love, and she learns that her mother has been killed.

After watching the film, Colombian filmmaker Víctor Gaviria's work come to mind: "Rodrigo D: No futuro" and "La vendedora de rosas". Both tried to make popular cinema to be seen by as many persons as possible. But while Gaviria is a poet, Novoa makes too many commercial concessions, which determine the product: "Oro diablo" is a film with a very simple and direct structure, with elements of social melodrama, adventure film, a bit of shock and a lot of sex, so the big audiences can relate to the story. Many dramatic situations are given formulaic solutions, distracting from its social, psychological and economic implications, while his composer Francisco Cabrujas over-emphasizes what the image has already showed. Nevertheless Novoa has a good sense of rhythm; he moves on and leads you along the story, benefiting from the sympathy of Miranda and Olivares, and efficient cinematography by Óscar Pérez.

Although I would be asking the film to be what it is not (mainly) about, our major complaint about "Oro diablo" is its too superficial approach to the ecological situation. When the world nations expend millions in their glamorous meetings, they all promise to save the children and planet Earth. But as soon as the delegates board their planes, everything is forgotten. In the overexploitation of resources (such as gold, in Panamá and the Amazon jungle), a good many of those dignitaries who sign agreements, are involved in the destruction of the planet, through private entrepreneurial involvement in the mining process. In "Oro diablo" it is only suggested by a European photographer who flies above the mines, and evacuates the settlers.

But "Oro diablo" is more about human relations in a problematic situation, than a political thriller. In spite of its shortcomings, it is an effective, entertaining and very revealing film.

Oro Diablo or Garimpeiros as it is known in Venezuela is a movie that fails to deliver a consistent story. aside from violent events, dirty talk, nudity and a very shallow love story, the movie does have anything else working for ti. It is the third movie from Producing Directing team Novoa-Schneider, and we can see a pattern of mediocre, poorly done, kitchy, films with the only common elements of being about "the true Venezuelan reality". By saying this they try to cover under the sheld of "If you dont like our films it is because you don't want to accept the reality of the country." That of course it not true. Their films lack any deep story telling elements such as Metaphores and fall back of the Venezuelan Soap Opera culture that has made its citizens acostume to see bad acting, bad directing and thousends of Cliches in the Story . It is a shame that they have been the only filmmaking team to recive national fundings for many years.. i look forward to a better time in the Venezuelan Film History