Manos sucias ("Dirty Hands" in English) tells the story of two men from Buenaventura, Colombia and their descent into the dangerous world of drug trafficking. The two men must transport a massive amount of cocaine to Panama in a speedboat without getting caught. This isn't Narcos; this is a sobering depiction of the day-to-day risks real-life drug traffickers face and the trade's negative impact on Colombian society as a whole. While it is somewhat slow-paced in my opinion, it successfully tackles a serious problem to this day on the western coast of Colombia and throughout the country.
What stood out to me about Manos sucias is the creativity of these low-resource Colombians. The cocaine is transported in a submarine of sorts latched onto the boat. Attached to the submarine on the surface of the water is a pipe that looks like an unsuspicious floating piece of junk. Whenever the authorities come, the men simply unlatch the submarine from the boat, and later reattach it when the authorities leave by locating the pipe.
I would recommend this film to anyone looking for a more realistic take on the world of drug trafficking in Colombia. As can be seen in this film, it is not as glorious or glamorous as it's made out to be by many other movies or TV shows. I am not sure if this film has helped or hurt the image of the city of Buenaventura, but it has definitely opened my eyes to some of the problems it is currently facing. Truth be told, it is one of the more dangerous cities in Colombia, perhaps in all of Latin America, due to ongoing gang violence and guerilla/paramilitary activity, which of course is all intimately tied to the illegal drug trade. My biggest complaints are that at times the movie drags along, and it ends rather upruptly. I would love to see more movies like this pertaining to real-world problems that most people prefer to simply ignore, and I applaud director Josef Kubota Wladyka for making such a tasteful, insightful film about such a serious and sensitive subject. Not to undermine the actors, who all did a great job as well in spite of not being professional actors, which makes it feel all that much more authentic.
