ENTERTAINMENT

Film: Battle In Heaven

As opening shots go, it’s an attention grabber: a plump, naked middle-aged man, standing stock still, being fellated in graphic close-up by a much younger, more attractive woman. Explicit? Definitely. Provocative? Obviously. But pornographic? Carlos Reygadas, the Mexican director of the film in question, Battle In Heaven, adamantly disagrees.“You just see people having oral sex,” he states casually. “But in pornography it’s not only a matter of what you see, otherwise a sex education book would be pornographic. Pornography is only there to arouse. What defines the essence is the intention.” He adds, somewhat elliptically: “It’s like football – my mother only sees 22 people running after a ball. And it’s true. But that is football if you only look 10 metres. You can look three miles.”

Reygadas, whose first feature, Japón, won widespread acclaim, is a filmmaker whose work demands concentrated viewing. Battle In Heaven, set in the maelstrom of present-day Mexico City, is a dizzying, near-hallucinogenic visual and aural experience. Marcos (Marcos Hernandez), the aforementioned middle-aged man, is a lowly chauffeur, who together with his wife kidnaps a young child. Things end tragically. But neither the kidnapping nor its victim’s fate is depicted in the film.
“I’m interested basically in internal feelings and I’m trying to look for the eternal conflict,” Reygadas explains. “For me it would be banal and even worse, probably somehow contributing to kidnapping and hysteria, if I spent my time showing this.”

Instead, Reygadas focuses on Marcos’ relationship with his boss’ daughter Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz), who herself moonlights for fun as a prostitute. Yet neither character’s actions has any traditional motivation, including the now notorious blowjobs that top and tail the film. In fact, neither Hernandez – once Reygadas’ father’s own driver – nor Mushkadiz, are actors at all.“I’m interested in what a person gives off or emanates by himself, what he is,” says Reygadas. “When I do the casting I just want a person who gives off what I need. I don’t need him to represent anything.”
He brusquely refutes charges of exploitation (“I’m not working with mentally unproficient people”), firmly backed by Mushkadiz. “I believe in the project and in Carlos, and I was very, very happy to be able to participate in this amazing creation,” she affirms. “I was actually very excited about the sex scenes. Sex can be also just an emotion or a beautiful image that can take you deep inside.” -L. Singer

The Constant Gardener