Lazone (2007)

Directed by: Rodrigo Pla | 97 minutes | drama | Actors: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Maribel Verdú, Carlos Bardem, Daniel Tovar, Alan Chávez, Mario Zaragoza, Marina de Tavira, Andrés Montiel, Blanca Guerra, Enrique Arreola, Gerardo Taracena

Be on the edge of your seat from start to finish. You don’t see that often. Rodrigo Pla gets it done. For an hour and a half you can’t beat the image at ‘La Zona’. The camera work is always perfectly chosen. Then again we see ‘The Zone’ through a security camera, then again we zoom in on a blinded car, everything gives you the ominous feeling that something terrible is about to happen again. The structure of the story also contributes to a tight tension. The flashbacks and flashforwards are well encapsulated in the film and keep you on your toes. You don’t seem to be able to miss a second to follow the storyline down to the last detail. In no time you no longer know ‘who belongs to whom’ and what plans they have in mind.

The alertness that is expected of the viewer is sometimes just a bit too much of a good thing. You should also have moments of relaxation in a movie with a lot of tension and that is hardly the case in ‘La Zona’. In this film you are already worried when you see a woman alone in the kitchen peeling potatoes. Because of the music and the way of filming – we don’t see what she doesn’t see either – you think she will be gripped by evil in no time.

The acting of the youngsters in ‘La Zona’ is admirable. Besides the fact that it is striking that there are so many young actors in this film, you can say that they play very convincingly and completely drag you into their misery. When they are chased or when they are caught doing anything, you feel the thrill and keep hoping that they can escape.

The way the community of La Zona and the Mexico City police face each other on several occasions is unnerving. You don’t know who is good or bad and who is good or bad, you just feel that nothing is quite right. Both parties are anxious and act like cats in a tight spot, so that the right decision never seems to be made.

Plá has shown very clearly how the gap between rich and poor can be in a city like Mexico City and mainly evokes sympathy for the poor who try to survive at all costs in the big city. It is therefore pitiful to see that the street rascals in ‘La Zona’ do not fare well because they are caught by people who have just as great a fear: not belonging, having no community to live in.

In a dramatic way, Rodrigo Plá shows us the hard side of a society where no one is spared, including children. ‘La Zona’ is a very intriguing, powerful film that won’t bore you easily and that you are constantly confronted with the facts: life is not always about roses and moonshine.