La libertad del diablo

La libertad del diablo (Devil's Freedom), Everardo González, Mexico, 2017, 74', DCP

This is one of those films that are impossible to forget and its visual and narrative impact is so powerful that it feels like a nightmare. But the entire film is real, thus the power of its images and testimonies and its importance as a document. As an initial summary we could say that this is a documentary that explores the phenomenon of violence in Mexico. Like so many others, we could think, as there are thousands of films that deal with the same topic. But no, this film is unlike any other. This film is unique.

In recent years, the war between narcos, paramilitaries and organised crime has left more than 100,000 executed people. The indirect victims are almost half a million: children, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, grandparents, teachers, students… What goes on in the minds, bodies, voices and dreams of the survivors? That is the key question of this psychological documentary.

The testimonies are many: victims and perpetrators in this war talk to the camera and remember and tell -in the past and present tense- how everything inside them has changed. How their bodies and minds have broken. The result is an account of terror and the human condition in a country where extreme violence has become an everyday occurrence. But there is something else that we won’t describe in the synopsis and which has to be experienced in the cinema: the way in which these testimonies are recorded. That's the nightmare. The unforgettable part of this film. As if someone had entered that hidden part of our minds where fear inhabits, and had portrayed us from the inside, from our bones, our skin.

Amnesty International Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2017.
Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, Mexico, 2017.
Best documentary film, documentary photography and music at the Fénix Film Awards, 2017.