- San Francisco Film Society

Manos Sucias
Grades 10-12
CLASSROOM GUIDE
USING
THIS GUIDE
ABOUT
THE FILM
Teachi n g
the Fi l m:
DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS &
POST-VIEWING
ACTIVITIES
ARTICLES &
REVIEWS
MEDIA LITERACY
RESOURCES
SUPPLEMENTAL
RESOURCES
Manos Sucias is a narrative feature film about two brothers who embark on a dangerous
journey trafficking drugs up the Pacific coast of Colombia. A class screening of the film
may supplement a global studies, social studies or ethnic studies curriculum. Taught
in conjunction with this guide, Manos Sucias will challenge students to think critically
about morality and power in a place not governed by the rule of law. Discussion questions
and supplementary materials facilitate further research into related topics such as the
international drug trade, Colombian history, and poverty and social mobility.
All SFFS Youth Education materials are developed in alignment with California educational standards for media literacy.
SFFS Youth Education welcomes feedback and questions on all printed study materials.
Please direct all comments and queries to Keith Zwölfer, Youth Education Manager:
San Francisco Film Society Youth Education
39 Mesa Street, Suite 110 - The Presidio San Francisco, CA 94129-1025
[email protected]
415.561.5040
USI N G THI S GUI D E
This study guide is intended to flexibly support
educators in preparing for and following
up on a class screening of Manos Sucias. Support
about the fi l m
Estranged brothers Jacobo (Jarlin Martinez) and Delio
(Cristian Advincula) have little in common but a shared
desire to escape Buenaventura, the violent epicenter of
Colombia’s drug trade. When they’re reunited to transport
a massive load of cocaine up the country’s perilous
coastal waters to Panama, Jacobo’s disappointment in
his younger brother’s choices is palpable; but to wideeyed Delio, an aspiring rapper and newly minted father,
the rules seem simple enough: no stopping, no women
and especially no talking about their cargo. Along the
dense jungle coastline, simple is anything but safe, and a
sudden, brutal act of violence finds the brothers adrift and
alone, left to renew their allegiance over half-remembered
Afro-Colombian songs and a mutual love of Brazilian
soccer god Pelé. In his debut feature, director Joseph
Kubota Wladyka evinces a realism like that found in the
early films of his mentor, the film’s executive producer
Spike Lee. Working with a largely non-professional cast in
the local Buenaventuran dialect, oblique to even Spanish
speakers, Wladyka captures the menacing beauty of
Colombia’s coast, its waters as murky as the moral truth
the brothers navigate: When life’s value is so small,
everyone is fair game. –Jackson Scarlett
materials are intended to facilitate group discussion,
individual and collaborative creative exercise, subjectbased learning and access to resources for further
investigation of material. Educators are encouraged to
adapt and abridge the content as necessary to meet
their unique learning objectives and circumstances.
Joseph Kubota Wladyka (Colombia/USA, 2014)
80 minutes, In Spanish with English Subtitles
Grades 10-12
Recommended Subject Areas:
Arts/Media
Social Studies
Latin American Studies
Key concepts / buzzwords:
Colombian History
International Drug Trade
Loss of Innocence
Morality
Poverty
Power
Racism
Social Mobility
DI S CUSSI O N QUESTI O NS
Pre-viewing topics and discussion:
Post Viewing Discussion:
Manos Sucias is a challenging film with several
instances of graphic violence. Before watching the film
as a class, we recommend that teachers first review the
film on their own in order to better prepare students for
the violent imagery and potentially upsetting themes it
contains. You may want to offer the option for students
who are more sensitive or easily disturbed to opt out of
the screening.
Characters and Story
The violence in Manos Sucias is
a vehicle for exploring morality
and conscience. Before viewing,
ask students to share examples of
violence that they have seen in other
films or on TV. After the screening,
you can revisit those examples of
media violence and compare them
with the violent scenes in Manos
Sucias. While media violence is often
casual and portrayed with minimal
focus on consequences, the violent
scenes in Manos Sucias are vested
with emotion and often deeply
troubling. Ask students to look out
for this contrast while watching.
Discussion questions in the postviewing section of this guide will
facilitate further analysis of this topic.
1) Describe Delio.
• What are his goals and dreams at the beginning of
the film?
• What is his life like in Buenaventura?
• How does he change during the course of the story?
• Compare and contrast Delio’s character at the
beginning and end of the film.
What is at
stake for
delio in the
climax of
the film?
To contextualize Manos Sucias, students should have
a very basic understanding of 20th century Colombian
history and geography and the international drug
trade. This may be as simple as looking at a map of
Colombia’s Pacific coast and discussing the history of
armed conflict in Colombia during the era of the US
War on Drugs. The Supplemental Resources section of
this guide includes support materials to facilitate that
discussion.
•
•
•
•
•
2) Describe Jacobo.
• What is Jacobo’s personal history?
• What are his goals and hopes for his life?
• What does the idea of moving to Bogota
mean to him?
3) Describe the relationship between Delio
and Jacobo.
• How does Jacobo see Delio in the
beginning of the film?
• Do you think Delio looks up to Jacobo?
• How does their relationship develop and
change during the course of the film?
4) What is at stake for Delio in the climax of
the film?
Describe the sequence of events leading to Delio’s
murder of the young boy in the water.
How does this act of killing differ from Delio’s
previous ideas about guns and gangsters?
What parallels and similarities exist between Delio
and the boy that he kills?
Do you think that Delio will be the same after this
action? What has changed for him?
As a viewer, how do you judge Delio’s decision to
kill in order to save himself and his brother? Do you
sympathize with Delio? Are you conflicted?
5) What are the larger themes at work in Manos Sucias?
What is the meaning of this film?
• How does the film’s climax connect to these primary
themes?
• What message is being communicated in Manos
Sucias?
Context
1 ) Describe life in Buenaventura.
• Why are Delio and Jacobo working such
a dangerous job?
• What options are available to them
outside of the drug trade?
• Who enforces the law in this part
of Colombia? Can the law protect
the citizens of Buenaventura from
violence?
• What economic and political realities
have contributed to the difficult
circumstances facing the citizens of
Buenaventura?
4) Manos Sucias literally means “dirty hands.” Who is
innocent and who is guilty in this film?
• Do you have a sense of what is right and wrong in
this film?
• Do you think these characters have a sense of right
and wrong? How does Delio’s conscience factor into
his decision-making?
• How do violence, poverty and a lack of personal
safety shape the meaning of morality in this film?
who is
innocent
and who
is guilty in
this film?
2) How does race factor into this story?
• How is race—and especially
blackness—portrayed in Manos
Sucias?
• Where do you see racism in the film?
• Do you think that the Afro-Colombian characters
feel solidarity with one another because of shared
race and culture? In which moments is this solidarity
strongest? Where does it fail?
3) Which characters have power in this film?
• How do you know who is powerful? What means do
characters use to show power over other characters?
• How do power dynamics shift and change during the
course of the film?
• At which moments are Delio and Jacobo powerful
and at which moments are they vulnerable?
•
•
Style and Message/Reading the Film
For Media Literacy
1) Review the opening scenes of Manos
Sucias. How does the film introduce you to
the setting, the characters and the conflict
that drives the story?
• What are your first impressions of
Buenaventura and the landscape around the
town?
• What are your first impressions of the
characters?
• Do you see any foreshadowing to suggest
what will happen later in the film?
2) What sounds do you hear in Manos
Sucias?
• How is sound connected to the conflict
and tension in the film?
What do you hear when a scene is becoming
dangerous?
Describe the music in the film. What feelings does it
inspire?
3) Often in Manos Sucias, the camera takes the point of
view of the torpedo, the boat, or the train car. What is the
effect of this perspective for the viewer?
• Why do you think the filmmaker chose to put the
camera in motion?
• How does a POV, or point of view, camera angle
change your relationship to the characters? A point of
view camera angle is when the camera sees the scene
•
from the perspective of a single character, or in this
case and object.
Compare and contrast the camerawork in Manos
Sucias to camerawork you have seen in other films.
4) Does Manos Sucias remind you of other films you’ve
seen?
• How is it like a typical action film and how is it
different?
• How does the violence in Manos Sucias differ from
violence that you have seen in other films?
• How does the violence in Manos Sucias make you feel
as a viewer? Compare and contrast your reactions
with other onscreen violence that you’ve seen.
• What do you think the filmmakers are trying to
accomplish in telling this story?
• Are they successful in their goals?
Post Viewing Activities:
1) Write a review of Manos Sucias.
• What did you feel were the film’s strengths and
weaknesses?
• Would you recommend this film to other viewers in
your age group? To other viewers in general?
• Why should people watch this film?
2) Using the materials in the Supplemental Resources
section of this guide, write a journalistic report on the
cocaine trade in Colombia.
• How is cocaine produced, refined and transported to
its market?
• Do people in Colombia consume most of the
cocaine that is grown there, or is it an export crop?
• Where is the primary market for the sale of cocaine?
• How has US military and political intervention in
Latin America contributed to the economic and
political conditions that allow the cocaine industry
to thrive?
California Media Literacy Standards Addressed In This Lesson:
•
Grades 9 & 10: Standard 1.14 Identify the aesthetic effects of a media presentation and evaluate the
techniques used to create them (e.g., compare Shakespeare’s Henry V with Kenneth Branagh’s 1990 film
version).
•
Grades 9 & 10: Standard 1.2 Compare and contrast the ways in which media genres (e.g., televised news, news
magazines, documentaries, online information) cover the same event.
•
Grades 11 & 12: Standard 1.1 Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and
transmit culture (e.g., advertisements; perpetuation of stereotypes; use of visual representations, special
effects, language); Standard 1.3 Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which events are presented
and information is communicated by visual image makers (e.g., graphic artists, documentary filmmakers,
illustrators, news photographers).
For more information about media literacy standards in your state, visit:
• MediaLiteracy.com: resources for advancing media education, United States Standards for media literacy
education. http://www.medialiteracy.com/standards.htm
•
Frank W Baker’s guide to State Standards Which Include Elements of Media Literacy. http://frankwbaker.com/
state_lit.htm
Common Core Standards Addressed In This Lesson:
•
This lesson addresses the English and Language Arts standards for Reading Literature grades 9-12, provided
that the film is considered a literary text. Character, plot, and structural analysis, as well as an understanding of
story genres apply. Additional specific standard applications are listed below:
•
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting
motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop
the theme.
•
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of
literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Analysis of a media message—or any piece of mass media
content—can best be accomplished by first identifying its
principal characteristics:
(1) Medium: the physical means by which it is contained
and/or delivered
SCREENING WITH MEANING
We live in a world where technology mediates a large
portion of human interaction and the exchange of
information. Every projected image, every word published
on a page or a website, and every sound from a speaker
reaches its audience through the medium, through the
language of the device. The ability to parse the vast array
of media messages is an essential skill for young people,
particularly in a mainstream commercial culture that targets
youth as a vulnerable, impressionable segment of the
American marketplace. Most students already have a keen
understanding of the languages different media use and the
techniques they employ to inspire particular emotions or
reactions, but they often lack the skill or awareness to fully
deconstruct the messages they continuously receive.
CORE
CONCEPTS
OF MEDIA
ANALYSIS
MEDIUM (2) Author: the person(s) responsible for its creation and
dissemination
(3) Content: the information, emotions, values or ideas it
conveys
(4) Audience: the target audience to whom it is delivered
(5) Purpose: the objectives of its authors and the effects of
its dissemination.
Students who can readily identify these five core
characteristics will be equipped to understand the
incentives at work behind media messages, as well as
their potential consequences. Media literacy education
empowers students to become responsible consumers,
active citizens and critical thinkers.
All Media Is Constructed.
How is the message delivered and in what format?
What technologies are used to present the message?
What visual and auditory elements are used?
What expectations do you bring to the content, given its medium and format?
AUTHOR All Media Is Constructed by Someone.
Who is delivering the message?
Who originally constructed the message?
What expectations do you have of the content, given its author(s)?
CONTENT All Media Is A Language.
What is the subject of the media message?
What information, values, emotions or ideas are conveyed by the media content?
What tools does the author employ to engage the viewer and evoke a response?
To what extent did the content meet your expectations, given the format/author?
AUDIENCE All Media Messages Reach an Audience.
Who receives the message?
For whom is the message intended?
What is the public reaction to the media content and/or its message?
What is your reaction to the media content and/or its message?
How might others perceive this message differently? Why?
PURPOSE All Media Messages Are Constructed for a Reason.
Why was the message constructed?
Who benefits from dissemination of the message? How?
To what extent does the message achieve its purpose?
What effect does the message have on the audience it reaches, if any?
THE FICTION FILM
WHAT IS A Narrative Feature?
A narrative film tells a fictional story. Narrative
filmmakers work from a script, directing actors through
a meticulous process that brings the written story to life.
Most of the films that we watch for entertainment are
narrative features. Like novels, these films tap into our
cultural mythology, and they spark our imaginations.
Fictional films introduce us to heroes and anti-heroes,
villains and comedians. They transport us to worlds that
are larger and more dramatic than our own. In writing
fiction, authors share their beliefs and value systems with
an audience, creating a dialogue around cultural values.
Storytelling is one of the oldest human art forms. We tell
stories about everything from our daily struggles to our
deepest belief systems. Filmmaking is a process of visual
storytelling. It combines written narrative with moving
image and sound. Films pull us away from the myriad
distractions of modern life and immerse us in the world
of a story.
WRITING FOR THE SCREEN
Narrative filmmaking begins with a story and a script.
Some film scripts are based on novels, and others are
written specifically for the screen. The process of writing
a film is similar to the process of creating any story; the
screenwriter begins with an idea, develops characters,
involves them in a plot with rising action, brings the
tension to a climax, and then finishes the film with a
resolution. Like novelists, screenwriters often make
changes to these basic plot structures, but you may be
surprised at how often your favorite films fit the model.
• Can you identify conflict, rising action, climax,
and resolution in one of your favorite films?
PRODUCTION
Once the script is written, the filmmakers need to transfer
the story from the page to the screen. The film will need
a producer, the manager or boss of the filmmaking
basic roles in a film production
screenwriter
The screenwriter creates a story with a plot
and characters, and develops it into a script that can be acted
onscreen. Some writers direct their own stories, and others work
with a different director.
producer
The producer is the organizer who carries a film
from the script to the screen. Bigger film productions have many
producers in charge of different functions, and in smaller films
one producer wears many hats.
director
The director manages the creative side of the film
production, coaxing strong performances from the actors, and
defining the look and feel of each scenes. The director may be
assisted by one or many assitant directors.
actors
The actors embody the characters in the script and
bring the story to life. Lead actors play the main roles and
supporting actors play less central characters.
cinematographer
Also known as the director of
photography, the cinematographer decides the composition
and lighting of each shot. A support staff of camera operators
assists the cinematographer.
Sound crew
A sound mixer and boom operator work
together to record speech and ambient sounds from each shot.
Lighting crew
The lighting crew is made up of the grip
and the gaffer. The gaffer is the chief electrician on set, and he
or she designs a lighting scheme. The grip magnifies some lights
and blocks others to achieve the desired effects.
art department
In a major film, the art department
might employ hundreds of people. Their jobs include costumes,
make-up, set construction, props, and special effects.
editor
The editor works with the director to build the footage
into a story. Usually several assistant editors provide support.
Sound designer
The sound designer adds music and sound
effects to the raw footage to create a soundtrack for the film. Many
films have an original score, or music that an artist composes
specifically for that film.
Visual Effects
The VFX crew works on the set and in the
post production studio to create virtual and digitally-generated
images and scene elements.
process. Making a narrative feature film is a little bit like
starting a small business. The producer finds investors
who will pay the salaries of the actors, the director, and
all of the many crew members who work together to
create the magic of a movie. While the director oversees
the creative elements of the filmmaking process, the
producer makes sure that everyone at work on the
production is doing a good job.
• Can you name the producers of any of your
favorite films?
• Look at the table on the previous page to learn
some of the different roles in a film production.
Production gets underway when the director, actors,
and crew members begin filming the movie scene by
scene. Some narrative films are shot in a constructed
set, and others are shot on location, or in the actual
landscape where the story takes place. The director
helps the actors deliver strong performances that fit
each character and helps the cinematographer or
director of photography to capture the best shot.
The editor, sound designer, visual effects artists,
and the rest of the post-production staff take the raw
footage from production and build it into a finished film.
Traditionally, editing involved cutting the film negative
and splicing it together in new combinations. Today,
editors work with computer software to simulate that
process. The way a scene is edited, or cut, combines
with the sound design to guide the viewer’s reaction.
A scary scene can easily become funny with a different
edit and soundtrack, and vice-versa. Films that make
heavy use of digital effects, like science fiction and
fantasy films, take more time in post-production than
films that rely on live action.
• Can you name a popular film that uses complex
visual effects?
• Can you think of a film that uses soundtrack to
guide the viewer’s emotions?
.
Colombian History
People Power Section 4: Colombia: Watch the nine-minute video and download the Colombia Briefing Packet
(requires free membership to sharemylesson.com).
http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/people-power-section-4-colombia-50007158/
Rutgers.edu Module on the Colombian Civil War
http://gc2000.rutgers.edu/GC2000/MODULES/CIVIL_WAR/ColombiaLessons.htm
Times Topics: Colombia:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/colombia/index.html
Buenaventura and Colombia’s Pacific Coast
Afrocolombian.org: “International Rally Against Violence in Buenaventura”
http://afrocolombian.org/2014/06/17/international-rally-against-violence-in-buenaventura/
Slate Magazine: “Beaches and Bodies in Buenaventura”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/roads/2014/08/beaches_and_bodies_in_buenaventura_one_of_
the_colombia_s_most_violent_cities.html
BBC: “Colombian Port Terrorized by Local Gangs”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26661384
Human Rights Campaign: “The Crisis in Buenaventura”
http://www.hrw.org/node/123658
Afro-Colombian Culture
The City Paper, Bogota, “All About Afro-Colombia”
http://thecitypaperbogota.com/living/all-about-afro-colombia/
Upsidedownworld.org “Colombian Music Festival Keeps Afro-Colombian Culture Alive”
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3209-colombian-music-festival-keeps-afro-colombianculture-alive
Afropedia:
http://www.afropedea.org/afro-colombian
Book: Afro-Colombian Hip-hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities,
By Christopher Dennis, sections available on Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Afro_Colombian_Hip_Hop.html?id=yxn5dWPW8G8C
The Cocaine Trade in Colombia
Patience and peril: filming Colombia’s drugs trade: a three-part series from The Guardian
Part 1: The Farmers:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/16/colombia-drugs-trade-film-making
Part 2: The Labs:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2010/feb/17/colombia-drugs-trade
Part 3: Patrolling the Coast:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2010/feb/18/colombia-drugs-trade
The Guardian, article: “The US War on Drugs and its Legacy in Latin America”
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/feb/03/us-war-on-drugs-impact-inlatin-american
Al Jazeera In-Depth Feature: “Did Colombia’s War on Drugs Succeed?”
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/05/did-colombia-war-drugs-succeed-201452264737690753.
html
Foreign Policy Magazine: “Colombia Calls a Draw in the War on Drugs”:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/13/colombia_calls_a_draw_in_the_war_on_drugs
PBS Timeline: 30 Years of America’s Drug War:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/
so, Wladyka’s debut has a more claustrophobic feel
than anything in Lee’s oeuvre; running just under 75
minutes, it’s a fierce snapshot of reckless behavior
enacted by helpless men.
About the Filmmaking Team
Learn more about the making of Manos Sucias and
the film team’s relationship to the community in
Buenaventura: www.manossuciasmovie.com
An interview with Manos Sucias
Director, Josef Wladka, in Bomb
Magazine: http://bombmagazine.
org/article/1000209/josef-kubotawladyka
Tribeca Review: Spike Lee-Produced ‘Manos Sucias’
Casts Drug Smuggling In a Personal Light
By Eric Kohn | Indiewire
Shot on location in and around Buenaventura, the
movie has a frantic, gritty energy attuned to its
characters’ frustrations.
Two Colombian men attempt to smuggle cocaine up
the Pacific. That’s the slim, basic trajectory of director
Josef Kubota Wladyka’s first feature, “Manos Sucias,”
and it rarely ventures beyond those restrictions. But
that very minimalism gives its drama a personal
quality steeped in the desperation of its lower
class anti-heroes. Shot on location in and around
Buenaventura, the movie has a frantic, gritty energy
attuned to its characters’ frustrations—not unlike the
fiery sentiments found in the most polemical output of
Spike Lee, who serves as an executive producer. Even
At its center is Delio (Cristian James Abvincula), a
pouty young black man eager to leave “that fucking
construction job” and find a better life for his wife
and infant child. In an early scene, he complains
about economic and racial hindrances alike, pointing
out to a friend that even in Bogota, the only black
people work in servant jobs. These moments arrive
as a flashback shortly after the establishing scene in
which Delio joins forces with fisherman Jacobo (Jarlin
Javier Martinez) to take on the uneasy job of cruising
up the Pacific with their clandestine sack of drugs.
As a result, the fleeting scenes in Buenaventura
are weighted with dread: Delio has lost faith in any
chance of a secure route to stability, which seals his
fate in dangerous waters.
The ensuing narrative largely unfolds with just the
two men on the boat, alternately discussing their
fears, aspirations and the prospects of their scheme.
Cinematographer Alan Blanco (who also co-wrote the
screenplay with the director) capably frames much of
the movie in closeups, allowing the dual protagonists’
scowling, worried expressions to drive the story
forward, while the grey ocean provides an abstract
backdrop that highlights the sheer emptiness of their
ambition.
The restrained setting has many precedents: While
one could easily place “Manos Sucias” in a tradition
stretching back to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat,” a
more contemporary reference point would be Lucy
Malloy’s 2012 drama “Una Noche,” in which a trio of
young Cubans attempt to row from Havana to Miami
under similarly dire conditions.
But in “Manos Sucias,” the men are as much a
hazard to their situation as the uneasy waters around
them. As they slowly progress toward a drop-off
point, communicating with their menacing contacts
on rickety cell phones, Wladyka regularly cuts to a
POV of the ramshackle torpedo weighed down with
100kg of cocaine trailing their boat from a few feet
away. Its watery perspective effectively conveys the
murkiness of their only hope.
While marked by a pair of brooding performances,
however, “Manos Sucias” isn’t consumed by
dreariness at every moment. An aspiring rapper,
Abvincula’s character has a playful demeanor that
regularly surfaces whenever the action temporarily
subsides; Martinez, playing an older, more
professionally focused figure, radiates a paternal
generosity toward his younger peer that ultimately
leads him to adopt frightening measures for the
sake of their survival. A vibrant soundtrack of local
Colombian melodies hints at the happier world just
beyond their reach. The movie regularly establishes a
calm state only to veer back to duress: the duo’s cozy
discussion about soccer around the fire one night is
counteracted by a sudden violent outbreak moments
later; the final act arrives without warning and unfolds
with a heightened sense of anguish.
“Manos Sucias” culminates with a singularly harsh
act that takes its characters into much darker
territory. Nevertheless, it’s not much of a surprise
when the movie gets there, given the limited range
of possibilities for this minor drama. The lasting
impression is one of several powerful moments
strung together rather than a fully developed plot. Yet
it’s exactly that stripped down element that imbues
“Manos Sucias” with a ragged feel not unlike the
uncertain world inhabited by its leading men.
Manos Sucias: Cartagena Review
US-Colombia co-produced action drama about life at
the bottom end of the narco trafficking chain. Spike
Lee exec produces.
by Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter
For many, life in Buenaventura in western Colombia is
shot through with violence, and it’s that violence which
is the focus of Manos sucias, a punchy, atmospheric
drama about a river trip by two young men carrying
a dangerous cargo, which is a rare combination of
straight-up action and moral sensitivity. Though not
always successfully, Polish-American director Josef
Kubota Wladyka bravely seeks to circumvent the
cliches beloved of narco movies in favour of a nuanced
character-based approach, giving Manos a dual partactioner, part-social crit appeal that could lead to
pickups in Latin American territories and on the festival
circuit. Manos played well in Cartagena and will be in
Tribeca.
Brooding, unsmiling Jacobo (Jarlin Martinez) is a
30-something fisherman from Buenaventura whose life
has been marked by tragedy: abandoned by his wife,
his young son has been killed by the paramilitaries.
Jacobo is saving for an escape to Bogota to start
a new life. 19 year-old Delio (Cristian Advincula) is
cheerfulness personified. Married with a baby son, a
big payday would make his winsome, permanent smile
even wider.
The pair come together via a job offer -- transporting a
narco torpedo by boat on Colombia’s Pacific coastline
to Panama. (A “narco torpedo” is a torpedo-shaped
container, full of drugs, designed to stay underwater as
it’s being pulled along by boat.) They are accompanied
at first by the unpleasant, racist Miguel (Hadder
Blandon): his racism is clear from the fact that he can’t
bear that Delio’s fave soccer player of all time is the
black Braziian Pele (soccer conversations are much to
the fore) rather than the white Zico.
But when some local kids locate the torpedo after a
night on land and Miguel shoots one of them dead,
Jacobo in turn shoots Miguel -- luckily, he’s not a great
loss to anyone, not even, apparently, his boss -- meaning
that Jacobo and Delio must continue the job alone.
One of the script’s neater twists has Jacobo’s killing
of Miguel echoed later, under far more explosive
circumstances, in a superbly played moment which
focuses most of the film’s moral themes into a few
seconds of memorable close-up.
There are multiple dangers on such a trip, among them
the ever-threatening paramiltiaries and people from other
villages -- people indeed much like Jacobo and Delio
-- stealing the precious cargo. In between the moments
of tension, Jacobo and Delio get to know one another
better, slipping into a somewhat schematic father/son
relationship which is however neatly upended when
Jacobo breaks down at the memory of his dead son, for
whom Delio has become a surrogate through the journey.
As Jacobo, Martinez drips charisma -- a strong, silent
type, old before his time, whose inner life is nonetheless
churning. Delio is everything that Jacobo is not - open,
and spontaneously joyous, he is ideally positioned to
learn some tough life lessons, and it’s when the darkness
is starting to show that the debutante Advincula really
gets the chance to show his acting chops. Both roles,
incidentally, are extremely demanding on the physical
side.
Much of the value of Manos sucias is in its authenticity.
The language , for example, is authentic Buenaventura
dialect, painstakingly transcribed from Spanish via a first
version in English, and could be baffling even to Spanish
speakers. And if the narco torpedo comes across as an
unlikely method of transportation, then the motorcylepowered train carts that run up and down the abandoned
railway lines between villages are even more surreal:
they’d be comically absurd if the circumstances were not
so tragic.
On-location shooting by a primarily Colombian crew
was no doubt complex, but worth it for the feel for
the real that the film is always aiming at, as revealed
in the textures, colors and general atmospherics of
impoverished lives on Colombia’s Pacific coastline.
D.p. (and co-writer) Alan Blanco generally shun beauty-
for-its own sake shots, preferring an unfussily direct
approach. The same is true of Scott Thorough’s
understated score.
At a deeper level, the film’s main concern is to overturn
good guy/bad guy stereotypes in narco movies,
blurring such easy distinctions and showing that
circumstance more than character is what makes the
difference. The script ensures that while the viewer is
indeed rooting for this young men who are unwittingly
contributing to a huge international problem, our
sympathies lie with who they are, not what they’re
doing: if indeed they do have dirty hands -- manos
sucias -- it’s through no fault of their own.
A bigger problem is that such broadly depicted good
intentions have themselves become something of a
cliche of the genre. Also on the downside, the need to
keep things moving quickly after an out-of-the blocks
start means that too much information is sometimes
squeezed too hastily into the on-board conversations.
Likewise, unnecessary sentimentality sometimes
breaks through the generally taut surface: over the
final twenty minutes, is an ailing grandmother (Cirila
Sinisterra) really necessary?