An early film from Amat Escalante (director of The Untamed), co-written with Martin Escalante, Los Bastardos is the cinematic equivalent of a short, sharp shock the body. It’s a relatively quiet film, and doesn’t seem troubling or disturbing until things take a very sudden turn into a third act that is positioned in much more dangerous territory than anything else preceding it.
Jesus Moises Rodriguez and Rubén Sosa play Jesús and Fausto, two undocumented immigrants trying to work in the USA. They have financial obligations (we hear conversation about a loved one who needs help), but they also don’t want to devalue themselves, nor any of the other workers who wait at the same spot every day to pick up jobs. The capitalism machine keeps trying to cheapen lives, however, so it can constantly grind bodies down into the fuel it needs to keep running. Things turn troubling when Jesús and Fausto enter the home of Karen (Nina Zavarin).
There isn’t much to say about Los Bastardos, on the surface. It has a short runtime, a number of scenes feel as if nothing is really happening, and the Escalantesn refuse to offer a clear and clean explanation of everything. Character motivations are implied, but only when leads are asked questions that create a narrative they decide to go along with. Whether that narrative is true or not is a different matter entirely, although some viewers may watch this and happily accept everything onscreen as it is presented. Perhaps the ambiguity is something I added to the film, but I find the whole thing much more interesting when motives aren’t entirely clear.
The small cast do well in their roles, especially when having to act out some of the more uncomfortable moments, to put it mildly. Rodriguez and Sosa, both non-professional actors, feel completely natural and real for every minute of the movie. The decision to use non-professionals in those roles could have easily backfired, but it works brilliantly. Zavarin, on the other hand, has an acting career that spans over two decades, and she is the one performer required to show absolute vulnerability and helplessness, something she does admirably.
Without too much here, if anything, that feels cinematic, Los Bastardos is best approached as something akin to a filmed stage play. It would be just as easy to dismiss it entirely as it would be to read too much into it, and I tentatively recommend it to those who don’t mind something that provides more questions than answers. Perhaps, and I realise this may be a stretch, the focus of the film isn’t really the narrative. Perhaps it was created to challenge how viewers perceive immigrants, to show how humans who are treated as disposable and discardable may view the lives of others as having the same pitifully low value.
Whatever you think of the film, you will think about it. That doesn’t guarantee that you will like it though.
7/10
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