We Are the Flesh (18)
Three stars
MEXICAN director Emiliano Rocha Minter makes a stark feature debut with a cornucopia of fleshy excess, sexual explicitness and violent depravity; quite the introduction indeed.
The plot, such as it is, takes place in a city that seems to have been all but destroyed and follows two siblings, Fauna (María Evoli) and Lucio (Diego Gamaliel), who find shelter in an old building while scavenging for food.
Once there they meet a scary and enigmatic man named Mariano (played with frenzied glee by Noé Hernández) who in return for food and a place to stay makes himself the head of a makeshift family who will go on to make them do some horrendous and debauched things.
It’s not a film for the faint-hearted or the easily shocked and offended as it unashamedly thrusts its audience into a horrific, dissolute world.
With its often fiery red colour palette and intense tone, it comes to resemble a vision of hell on earth – evoking Brian Yuzna’s 1989 oddity Society and the body-horror of old school David Cronenberg – more than a sanctuary from what is presumably but weirdly never explained worldwide catastrophe.
There’s no doubting the sense of visual style Minter has as a filmmaker and with it he creates an impressive sense of unsettling menace, unpredictability and impending doom, peppering his surprisingly swift 79-minute cinematic drug trip with some truly arresting imagery and anchoring the madness with three impressive performances.
Its closest companion would be the work of famed Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. And while it doesn’t reach the giddy heights of his El Topo or Santa Sangre – its outlandish perversion never quite pushes beyond the weird-for-weird’s-sake bubble – it’s a rare thing for any filmmaker to remotely warrant the comparison. You’ll be left wondering what the hell you just saw.
That’s probably the point.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article