PROTAGONISTS IN FLUX, CAMERA ON THE MOVE
Montrealer Arango’s triptych an authentic vision of youths on doorstep of adulthood
The opening shot of Juan Andrés Arango’s X Quinientos is deceivingly serene. The Colombian Montrealer’s second feature is an immersive experience (like his first, La Playa D.C., which premièred at Cannes), the camera ever in motion following young protagonists in states of flux.
The triptych begins with a pastoral image of a valley in the Mexican countryside. Birds chirp, the wind blows. Next is a symmetrically framed scene inside a small cabin where a young indigenous man, David (Bernardo Garnica Cruz), sits stiffly on a bed, looking at the floor. The tension builds as he gets up the nerve required for his next move.
The teen leaves home and makes his way to Mexico City, where he stays with his cousin in a tough, gang-controlled neighbourhood. He finds menial work in a factory, befriending a co-worker who on his days off spikes his bright red hair into a dramatic mohawk and hangs out with other indigenous punks.
In the coastal ghetto of Buenaventura, Colombia, fast-talking Alex (Jonathan Diaz Angulo) returns home after being deported from the United States. He dreams of buying a motor to get his boat up and running so he can help his mother and young brother. But in trying to secure the funds, he falls under the influence of the violent gang that runs the area.
In Montreal, Maria (Jembie Almazan) arrives from the Philippines to live with her grandmother, following the death of her mother. She struggles to fit in at school, getting into violent altercations with classmates. She finds her place within a crew of Filipino teens who dress in the hip-hop style of Mexican cholos (gangsters).
Arango conducted in-depth research within each community depicted in the film. Using firsttime actors and a documentarystyle approach, he pursued an authenticity that carries over onto the screen. He emerges with a visceral contemplation of youth forced into adulthood, each character adopting a new identity as part of a new crew, or makeshift family, as a means of survival. Arango’s intuitive camera lingers, non-judgmentally, bearing
witness to the choices made, and their consequences.