Je ne suis plus là

The story beautiful and depressing. It revolves around a group of friends that love to dance and straight up VIBE. Though they are trouble makers, they would never actually do any harm. It conveys the hardships of growing up in a country where corruption is high and gang involvement being extremely prevalent in poor neighborhoods. The acting was phenomenal. It goes back and forth through a timeline of past and present which is so gorgeously executed. You feel the complete loneliness and utter frustration that Ulises feels when coming to a foreign country. It leaves you mourning for a group of friends that you never had before. It leaves you wishing the world wasn't so crazy. It leaves you astonished. WATCH IT! PLEASE!!!

... even one called home; life in Monterrey becomes untenable for a young gang lead, stranded in deep water, unable to fight the tide, washed up in New York where the currents repel - all played out to an original soundtrack of Cumbia Rebajada and the passion for expression, identity and dance.

I mean, it doesn't have much dialogue, character development and such, but it's so beautiful to watch. The cumbia colombiana is really a thing in northern México, and I had no idea until I lived in Monterrey. This is really a very simple movie concept, but somehow it's really enjoyable. It appeals to nostalgia, teen years, anarchy, vandalism, dancing and fun. I'm kinda proud of our cultural richness, it's amazing how different a country is when you move across neighborhoods or states, and here it's mostly emphasized between countries. We can see a glance of the migrant life, the troubles of losing your identity, feeling lonely and having a language barrier. Every human being, including counterculture marginalized groups of people (like the one we see in the film), deserve a decent lifestyle. The violence in our country is really omnipresent, it shows itself in dark alleys in broad daylight.

Coming from a very similar background I found this movie painful yet beautifullly accurate. It's a faithful representation of the reality that people from troubled neighborhoods like that one have had and still have to live thanks to the organized crime. It makes a wonderful job portraying how heartbreaking it can be to be away from home, feeling alone and powerless, as well as the deep nostalgia of the good old days that won't ever come back.

If you are going to give it a shot, please try to put yourself in the position of those people who don't know better and who also have not very many options of having a better life.

As a middle class mexican from the northwest of the country, the Monterrey cholombiano subculture is not one that I'm too familiar with (remember Mexico is huge and diverse). This movie was captivating and entertaining, and it made me wonder what would happen to the protagonist. According to experts, this movie did an accurate ethnographic depiction of the cholombianos, which is something to applaud. I really liked the fact that the story felt 100 % real, it didn't focus the lens on the violence or on romanticising the struggles of the protagonist. So don't expect a fast-paced/ultra violent narcos-style movie. Without being a documentary I feel I learned a lot about this urban tribe, their values like loyalty, and their amazing dance, you won't regret it!