The Strategy of the Snail ( Columbia, 1993)

The title (Original Spanish - La Estrategia del Caracol) starts with the drawings of moving a house (Yes, a building) from one place to another. Lovely pictures depicting the movement of the house. The building is kept dangling on a rope as it is moved by a pulley. Well, this will set the plot for the film, that someone is going to move something!.

Coming third in the Country-wise film series is from C for Columbia. Latin-American movies are always fascinating and this time we are in the land of the famous novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of course, he has a hand in this film. Not much from his end, just a little bit of pat on the back for the makers (Director-Sergio Cabrera) to persuade in completing the film.

The movie starts with the eviction of a house (assume a 2-3 storey building) named La Pajarera by the authorities. The entire neighborhood is bought by the rich man (Dr. Holguin), who has plans of converting it into a hotel. The tenants resist and start shooting the authorities. The shoot-up ends with killing a boy. 

The next house to get evicted is Casa Uribe, prior notice is given and date is fixed. The tenants of Casa Uribe don’t want to go down like their neighbor’s in La Pajarera. So they decide to move the house. Not as described in the title drawings, but part by part. Headed by Don Jacinto (Fausto Cabrera), who uses the trick of lifting heavy weights using a pulley to transports the doors, windows, roof tiles, etc to a vacant house on the other end of the street. From there it is taken to a hilly side of the capital Bogota, where they have already bought a land. Casa Uribe tenants are represented by Romero (Frank Ramirez), who buys time from the authorities. 

Did Casa Uribe tenants succeed and on what state Dr. Holguin got the house is the rest of the story. ?

While looking at the film title, one can guess the strategy succeeded, so what will interest you to see in the film is how they achieved. How did Don Jacinto and Romero convince the other tenants to take part in the movement?. We can put this in the genre of black comedy or comedy. When finally a reporter asks a tenant, “Why did they do this?” he replies back “It’s all for dignity”.

The full film is available in YouTube with English subs.

Earlier Posts - Afghanistan, Burma

Country Series – This will feature countries from alphabetical order, A to Z. One film from a country will be written on a weekly basis. Next in the series will be from Denmark.

Maria Full Of Grace ( Colombia, 2004 )

Language: Spanish
Country: Colombia\USA
Year: 2004
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Johanna Andrea Mora
Director: Joshua Marston
Genre: Drama

This is the first time FilmBulb is writing about a movie from Colombia (Of course this film includes US companies in its production). To know more about Colombia, click here. 

The movie is set in Spanish language. Maria, a young-teen girl works in a flower plantation near Bogota. Her family, especially her elder sister is depended on her salary. She becomes pregnant,  meantime she quits her job owing to a spat with her manager. While on her way to Bogota to find a job, she meets her friend Franklin who proposes her for a drug-mule job (For Indian readers- Remember the Tamil movie Ayan). He promises for big money and takes her to a drug-dealer. There she gets acquainted with Lucy, who had done the mule job twice before. Lucy prepares Maria on how to swallow the pellets using grapes. 

The day arrives to leave, their destination is New York. Maria finds Lucy and her friend Blanca on the plane as mules. Did they get past the US customs, what was their fate is the rest of the story.

Maria, Lucy and Blanca on the plane to New York

The presence of Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria is well-matched. She embodies the hesitant nature of Maria very well. Even though she emits the doubtfulness- she takes a right-move (I have to say bold move). No wonder she got nominated for Best Actress Academy Award. 

With the initial viewing, one will see this movie as a drug-trafficking film, I thought the same, but the vein of the story is people’ appetite for prosperity and freedom, which is Maria won’t get in Columbia, but she thinks she will get those in America. It is simple yet gripping tale of survival.

Youtube Trailer