The murderer's paradise
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The murderer's paradise |
| Original title | El traspatio |
| Country of production | Mexico |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 118 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Carlos Carrera |
| script | Sabina Berman |
| production |
Isabelle Tardán Sabina Berman |
| music | Fernando Corona |
| camera | Martín Boege |
| cut | Óscar Figueroa |
| occupation | |
| |
The Paradise of the Murderers ( Spanish original title: El traspatio ; international title: Backyard ) is a Mexican film from 2009 that is set in the US border town of Ciudad Juarez and is based on the murders of women there . The Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera plays the policewoman Blanca Bravo, who is supposed to get the investigations starving by the local police going. In this respect, she plays the same role as Jennifer Lopez (as Lauren Adrian) in the US-British film Bordertown , which premiered in 2006.
action
The police officer Captain Blanca Bravo comes from the police academy in Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez to advance the sluggish investigations into the series of female murders. With her committed nature, however, she not only makes friends with colleagues and superiors up to the governor of Chihuahua , who in turn is put under pressure by the multinational corporations based in Ciudad Juárez , which are extremely careful that the murders in no way be associated with their maquiladores . Rather, the governor should show foreign investors that the city is a good location for factories and that they can count on his support.
As part of their investigation, the police soon suspect a well-known molester who had already been imprisoned several times in the USA for various offenses , but was then released early on condition that he leave the country immediately. This is how the Egyptian- born Abdallah Hadad, known as "The Sultan", came to Mexico . But after his arrest, the murders of women continue unchanged.
A little later the police carried out a large-scale raid in which the entire inner city area was surrounded and a wave of arrests ensued. The governor wants to "see results" and the police chief of Ciudad Juárez assures him that he will convict "guilty" at every interrogation.
At a meeting with a US Senator and Mr. Numasaki, the Japanese owner of the KIKAI factory in Ciudad Juárez, the governor said that street lights and public buses in working-class neighborhoods would make the city safer. "Because such measures would plunder the treasury of Chihuahua," he hopes for a financial contribution from the USA and the multinational corporations, which, however, have no interest in co-financing. Rather, Mr. Numasaki comes up with the following figures: “A Mexican worker costs one dollar an hour, a Chinese woman only 95 cents. In Bangladesh it is only 87 cents and in Thailand only 83 cents. "The US Senator comments on these figures:" And then the big corporations pull out their factories, unless we offer cheaper staff. "
The dedicated journalist Víctor Peralta repeatedly criticizes the opaque police methods in his radio broadcasts: "There are arrests, but the police produce confessions and falsify evidence that was generated through the use of brute force to present results."
Because the policewoman Blanca Bravo, who is friends with Peralta, also criticizes the poor workings of the police in Juárez, the governor threatens to confiscate her badge. But before that happens, she and her colleague Fierro, who then becomes police chief, have one last assignment. Fierro is monitoring the seedy nightclub owner Mickey Santos, who lives across the Rio Grande and does his dirty business in Juarez. On a drive, Santos discovers a young woman and forces her to get into his car at gunpoint. Soon he is caught by Fierro, who is driving behind him, and Blanca, who is blocking his way forward. He casually throws away his pistol when he is arrested, takes off his gloves and says with a malicious grin: "I surrender because I know that I can always rely on fair treatment from the authorities." Blanca fires in disgust her magazine empty and formally executes him. Fierro is the only witness. According to the official version, Santos' death is declared by rival drug gangs and nobody cares that he does not belong in these circles.
While Blanca Bravo is leaving Ciudad Juárez and driving across the border to El Paso , Peralta explains on his radio station that KIKAI has started to withdraw from Juárez: “That is the good thing about cross-border business. As soon as inconvenience arises, the field is cleared - and then simply switched sides and continued with the exploitation of the workers through starvation wages. "
Not an isolated case
At the end of the film about the allegedly “most dangerous city in the world”, the following statistics about “women murdered by sex crimes” are shown, which make it clear that this is not just a regional problem in Ciudad Juárez, where it occurred between 1996 and 2008 there were at least 445 feminicides and at least 1035 missing women:
| region | Period | number |
|---|---|---|
| State of Mexico | 2000-2006 | 1288 |
| State of Chiapas | 2000-2004 | 1263 |
| Veracruz state | 2000-2005 | 1494 |
| Guatemala | 2000-2008 | 2612 |
| El Salvador | 2001-2007 | 886 |
| Buenos Aires Province | 1992-2003 | 1072 |
| Spain | 1999-2007 | 582 |
| Peru | 2001-2004 | 1118 |
| new York | 1996-2006 | 1400 |
| United States | 2004 alone | 3541 |
Others
The film was the 2010 Mexican entry in the race for the best foreign language film in the run-up to the 2010 Academy Awards .
Reviews
“'The Paradise of the Murderers' tells a story in the form of an intense, suspenseful thriller that is based on true events. ... The local authorities delayed the investigation of the perpetrators and for a long time refused to support the production of the film. Today Ciudad Juárez is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world. Since 'The Paradise of the Murderers' was filmed on the original locations, the shooting could only take place under the greatest security precautions. "
“The series of murders of young women in Ciudad Juárez has been going on since 1993. … This Mexican Oscar candidate tries to portray the horror in a clearly didactic way, sometimes openly brutal and only slightly euphemistic. "
Web links
- The paradise of the murderer in the Internet Movie Database (English)