Known for directing music videos for artists such as Bad Bunny and Omar Apollo, filmmaker Stillz moves into narrative filmmaking with his debut feature Barrio Triste. Shot on a DV camera and produced by Harmony Korine’s production company EDGLRD, the film follows a group of young thieves in Medellin. The story takes place in the late 1980s. These people rob banks and burn cars. Amidst these violent acts, supernatural entities loom over them as several young men are found to be missing. With its documentary style, characterised by several long takes and in-camera editing, the film echoes the neorealism of Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel, 1950) and the nonlinear editing of City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002).
Barrio Triste, which translates to “Sad Neighborhood”, reveals more about Medellin than what the media portrays. Although it is an area heavily impacted by poverty and crime, Stillz depicts the town’s wonders and vibrancy. While the camera lens is filled with dust, it conveys the boys’ unawareness of camera maintenance and efficiency, and embrace of a so-called “inadequate” memory catcher in the contemporary moment. All of this is accompanied by a testimony from protagonist Mundomalo (Samuel Velásquez). Mundomalo is in an undisclosed beige room where he’s asked about his crimes and the meaning of life from an unseen authority figure. It’s fair to assume that he might be one of the few surviving children from this mysterious phenomenon. Mundomalo is not only proving the innocence of his missing comrades as the camera zooms in on his face, but shares an alternative way of living and perceives the otherworldly beings in his town as a guiding light (in a literal way).
Stillz wears his influences from the gangster film genre, such as City of God and Menace II Society (Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes, 1993), on his sleeve, as seen in the early heist scenes. Sometimes, he replicates scenes from those films with no new additions to his story. Fortunately, he diverts the gangster film into an exploration of spirituality. The best sequences of the film aren’t Mundomalo’s chemistry with his friends or the gang committing crimes. They are Mundomalo’s walks. The mundane walks are filmed in long takes as the lead is figuring out multiple things at once. He questions his beliefs, the events he just experienced, and the world that he lives in. It gives the audience breathing room over the chaos they’ve just exhumed.
Overall, Barrio Triste is a profound inquiry into the meaning of life. Stillz unveils how one’s perspective is shaped. Whether that point-of-view comes from history, religion, or society, the film shows how the extraordinary is reasonable. Stillz’s mission is not for the audience to believe in the supernatural or that Mundomalo is not guilty, but to let them invest in a young man who has the potential to become a leading voice. With Arca’s daunting, eerie score, there’s more to Mundomalo than what he shares with the audience through his words. No one goes back to normal once they encounter the strange.
Barrio Triste just premiered at the New ork International Film Festival.
