This is the debut feature film of Natalia Lopez (wife of director Carlos Reygadas, actress in Reygadas' "Our Times" as its lead character Esther, and editor of several works of Reygadas). It is not surprising that this work has the stamp of Reygadas' style all over it, from the opening sequence onwards (ref. "Silent Light"). As Ms Lopez is a woman, she captures the life of Mexico's underworld of drug cartels, the corrrupt police, abductions, killings, divorces, and the effect of all this on the children in a sensitive, realistic manner, unlike the brutal, coarse work of director Amat Escalante in "Heli" in which also Ms Lopez was the editor. As in all Reygadas films, the race relationships within Mexico are prominent. This is critical, as this film dwells on the reactions and actions of three "connected Mexican women," following the disappearance of a fourth woman. During the Berlinale Press Conference . Ms Lopez said she saw the three women as three faces of a single woman, like a Hindu goddess. The three women are a wealthy woman separating/divorcing from her husband; a corrupt police officer; and a family maid of the wealthy woman.
A noteworthy debut effort, which deservedly won the Berlin Silver Bear. (P. S. The film includes a bizarre sequence of a man being burnt to death in front of scores of mute spectators, including women, as though some illegal justice/punishment is being carried out.)
