Una película de policías

You know how at police stations they have those one-way mirrors, so a victim can look at suspects without the suspects seeing them. Or detectives can watch a criminal in a holding room.

This no-fiction documentary with actors the camera serves like dueling one-way mirrors. Mostly focused on a dramatic re-enactment of two cops in Mexico City, but we also towards the end get to meet the cops who the film is based on.

And on top of that, there is a section where we see the actors spending 100 days in police training with other cadets.

So it's maybe more like a fun-house mirror, and the film is a little disorientating. But perhaps like myself, you are looking for that kind of experience. It's pretty clear early on in the opening dramatic scene, that while the camera is trying to make us feel we are there on the patrol with Officer Teresa, it is clearly staged.

The movie flirts with accusations of injustice, the two actors flirt with each other, the actual cops flirt to the point of being called the Love Patrol.

There is amazing music, including a chase scene that is scored right out of classic 70's police shows as well as a closing Gavin Bryars piece that you might also recognize. And I wonder of that is another editorial comment on the state of la policia en Mexico by the wonderfully talented Ruizpalacios. Oh yeah, there is also I think a woman singing/screaming/crying instead of the police siren.

If you are looking for a film that is an experimental piece of art hiding inside something that looks/feels often like something more commercial, with guns and love - this might be the film for you. It is the kind of film that would be tremendous to see at a festival and hear the director, actors and non-actors discuss afterwards.

I do wonder if the real and reel versions of Teresa and Montoya feel a little about the movie after all is said and done the way the real Teresa and Montoya felt about the police department. Diving into the film, like diving into the Blue/Police Force, requires a pretty great abandon expecting some things are basically ordained to go bad, but will bad dive down to worse.

Finding love where there is none, have compassion for those who do not...

Ruizpalacios plays with reality and shares this funny, romantic and sad story with us. There are many stories that have to be told, even more those that we don't want to hear. The film shows us the "other side" the one of the apparent enemy, who at the end of everything tells us (through comedy) that police and citizens are the same human beings with fears, feelings and a life full of questions.

Teresa and Montoya, what can I say, thank you for taking me on this trip.

Don Alonso Ruizpalacios, thank you for doing what you do and sharing it with us.

And thank you AMBULANTE for bringing good and free cinema around México!!!

Part documentary, part acted. Wonderful idea. Discusses the corruption in the Mexican police force. Is the public responsible for the state of affairs? Are the elected politicians who encourage the corruption responsible? Will honest cops survive? Very good music and cinematography to boot. This film deserved the Silver Bear for outstanding Artistic Contribution for Editing at the Berlin Film Festival 2021. A trivia the film reveals: It is the always the original natives (a.k.a. The indigenous population) who opt for this no-win career forcing you to accept the status quo of the Mexican police force. If you don't accept the system you are cornered until you resign in disgust.

Interesting documentary to try to understand why cops in Mexico are corrupted. Maybe watching this one change your point of view, or maybe not.

Personally, I really enjoyed the way the director filmed this one mixing fiction with reality. Also, how difficult is to be a cop in Mexico.

So, overall a good documentary for a Sunday afternoon.

This film has a different format, it is a documentary but acted based on real situations.

This format is good and new, like the story it tells, but there is a message that it exposes and that is not very good, this message tells us about why some police officers are corrupt, which they explain and in a certain way you come to understand it, but they also mention the corrupt part of the citizen and in a country where corruption is very common, I do not feel that the corruption of citizens can be justified in order not to pay for their violation or not be responsible for the crime they committed, all that chain corruption can be committed by a simple traffic ticket to overlook a homicide, that has led Mexico to be a very unsafe country with a very bad reputation. I do not think the film does well to expose the justification of corruption by part of the police, their reasons are understood but the citizens do not think they have a valid justification for being corrupt. Although you have to accept that the film and its novel format stand out and make it a product of visual quality and that you understand the main situation that is exposed, despite its hypocritical and negative message.

A film can have a significant influence on the public, that is why I do not think that the issue of justified corruption is a subject to be exposed in a film that reaches many parts of the world and that can have an impact on the way of think about Mexican society, speaking from a point of view that lives in Mexico City. The film is not bad, but its message makes me not like it.