Caín adolescente

Mother Juana and son Juan move from their rural Venezuelan town to the big city of Caraccas and live in a barrio, or hill-slum village. The son falls in love with Carmen, who is pregnant by Juan's best friend. Mom meets and seems to like Antonio, but he moves away. Her hand injury is treated, via ritual incantation, by Encarnacion, who is wanted by the police for murder and is also an abortionist. Juana falls in lust with Encarnacion. Juan wants to marry Carmen; Carmen wants an abortion; Juan dissuades her. Encarnacion winds up in jail. Mom visits him there. Mom dies in a church-building disaster announced at the start of the film.

These are the framing elements of this extremely overblown, soporific, turgid story.

Some of the elements of the movie suggest the city-as-destructive force theme of Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, made around the same time, but without the consummate artistry of the Italian film. Instead we are given a rather shrill Latino soap opera of the slums.

For me, the most appealing elements of the movie were the effective locations settings, the depiction of the mardi-gras carnival, and some of the amusing "gargoyle" qualities of a few of the characters, such as Juana's superstitious neighborhood woman friend.

This unknown and perennially unseen film made its way as a retrospective into a recent Latino film festival, and one is always grateful for the presentation of rare revivals, regardless of their ultimate worth.

Director Roman Chalbaud directed with intensity, if not subtlety.