UK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL 2022 – Film Review – Plaza Catedral (2021)
Heartbreaking realist drama from the mean streets of Panama City about the frozen solitude of loss. Scathing and sightful it showcases the raw power of cinema as a conduit for social change.
Mexican architect Alicia is smothered by sadness after the tragic death of her beloved six-year-old son. Self-confessed as “dead inside” she has withdrawn from her blame-obsessed husband and is having vivid fantasies of suicide.
Without warning, Alexis, a 14-year-old $3 parking space pest, invades her private pity party to test the calibration of her moral compass. The two begin to build bridges, literally and metaphorically, as Alicia attempts to fix a human being more broken by life than she is.
Layered and nuanced Abner Benaim’s intricate dissection of grief is both intimate and expansive as it uses the devastation of a personal tragedy to throw light upon the plague of child homicide in Latin America. Yet Benaim never once sets out to manipulate the audience as he allows his fine cast to marinate in the cloying juices of Force majeure before allowing the potent residue to filter into the tributaries of social injustice.
Lorenzo Hagerman‘s impressive camerawork reflects this ethos as it swoops and glowers between heady vistas, vertigo-inducing perspectives, and close-up facial framing. Echoing this is Soledad Salfate’s graceful editing. Soledad is equally comfortable lingering on the subtle dynamics of solidarity as embracing the flashback fireworks and dream sequence dramatics of the surreal headfucks that writhe beneath the heavy blankets of grief.
Essentially a touching relationship drama, Plaza Catedral boils over into thriller territory as the viewer waits helplessly for its emotionally paralysed heroine to awaken from her despondency coma. All we can do is watch through our fingers as the hounds of chaos gather to fall upon bad decisions and self-punishing bravado masquerading as stoic altruism and deserved retribution.
Ilse Salas is superb as Alicia and her portrayal of a woman going through the motions of living in a disintegrating world of despair is both immersive and authentic. Salas even studied martial arts for the training sessions her character uses to vent her inner rage and welcome opportunities for self-flagellation.
Alicia still sneaks into the home she used to share with her emotionally crippled husband to sleep in their dead son’s bed. She also finds herself unable to have sex without being haunted by the specters of guilt. Alicia has allowed her empathy to be swallowed by bitter nihilism yet Ilse Salas imbues her with enough charm and relatability for us to glimpse the woman and mother she once was.
Fernando Xavier De Casta proves a capable foil with a performance of energy and promise as the charismatically resourceful Alexis. Unearthed through local video auditions and workshop sessions his natural talent vibrates through the picture and the banter he shares with Salas is humorous and moving by turns.
Plaza Catedral avoids the pitfalls of over-sentimentality and preaching to the choir preferring to let its story unfold with an organic dignity. Everybody knows that the morgues of Latin America should not be overflowing with the bodies of boys coerced to believe they must die as men. What the director and his film are saying here is that Panama is a small enough country that the rot could be reversed if enough people are brave enough to challenge the toxic violence.
There are two genuinely devastating moments of clarity in this blistering film. One narrative and one from the real world. The first is a masterful call back to a seemingly innocuous conversation between Alicia and Alexis that returns like a razor-sharp boomerang and the second is the final dedication that will zip through your brain like a sniper’s bullet.
Plaza Catedral is the first ever film from Panama to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar. I for one hope this plucky and powerful picture wins this accolade and is granted the platform and legacy it so richly deserves.
★★★★★
Drama, Thriller | Panama, Mexico, Colombia, 2021 | Cert. Unrated | 94 mins | Apatura Films| UK Jewish Film Festival 2022| Dir. Abner Benaim | With: Ilse Salas, Manolo Cardona, Fernando Xavier De Casta
Watch now on Apple TV and Amazon.
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
