Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
The Desert Within (Desierto adentro) @ the Hola Mexico Film Festival
November 26th 2008 22:30
I will admit, as someone that has no religious beliefs, that the movie left me feeling confused and cynical - out in rural Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, the national army fights against the influence of the Catholic Church, and destroys the cathedral in a small town.
One man, Elias, is desperate to save his family, refusing to stand with the rebels and fight against the army, despite his elderly mother imploring him to defend their right to worship. Elias refuses to fight, but when a minor accident threatens the life of his unborn son, the mother begs him to bring a priest to baptize the child in case of a stillborn birth - Elias brings the priest, but the army follows, razing the town and killing most of the inhabitants.
In an animated sequence, God comes to Elias, alone in a cornfield, weeping for the loss of his wife, who dies in childbirth, and his son, who was hanged for being a rebel. Instead of bringing him comfort, God announces that Elias lives only for penance, and that the rest of his family would bear his punishment.
Elias has seven remaining children, and "The Desert Within" glumly executes God's will on them, bringing further tragedy on the family. To offer the greatest gift to God, Elias builds a church in the desert, growing desperate and increasingly frantic as his family suffers.
I don't know what to say - other than reflect on a story from the Old Testament, the story of Job, who was a righteous man, successful with a wonderful family. The lunacy of this tale is better acknowledged by South Park:
To summarize:
Kyle: I was right... Job loses all his children and Michael Bay gets to keep making movies. There isn't a God.
"The Desert Within" was directed by Rodrigo Pla, who pulls no punches, nor loosens the screws on Elias' fate. I suspect Pla is not religious, either, and takes aim at the blind eye of faith, an unpredictable knowledge that there's a higher being controlling the Universe, bringing despair and misery with it.
The interesting question, for me, is: if Elias had not decided to take his family out into the desert to build the church, would those same tragedies occur? It seems unlikely, though, in the reality of the film, one could argue that God would have brought punishment down, regardless.
To me, however, I take great comfort in the cold-hearted randomness of the world, a world that giveth and taketh away without any rational thought or sense of morality. "The Desert Within" is a hard movie to watch, one that drains the life out of you, but is a riveting look at the desperation that comes to a family that depends on the idea of God's forgiveness for their survival.
I say: Steel yourself for a tough night, but if the subject matter is up to your tastes, "The Desert Within" is a great film about the relationship between people and their religion.
See it for: Apparently, the film was inspired by the diary of Kierkegaard, who had similar experience in the film. Reshaped and adapted for Catholicism in Mexico.
*this image is from AFI Fest
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Comment by Anonymous
Here's a quote of Plá's which gives more insight into the film and particularly Plá's motivations:
"The primary idea is generated from the reading of the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, particularly where it accounts for daily life. Kierkegaard's father lived with the conviction that God would punish him by taking away their children prematurely for a sin he had committed. The existence of Kierkegaard was marked by the guilt and the image of a vengeful and wrathful God.
The Cristero War within the film works more as a backdrop to the theme itself. We knew what we wanted to tell and the characteristics that we overlaid the religious conflict was ripe to justify certain events which were the substance of our story: the lack of priests in the country and therefore a clear spiritual guide, the prohibition of public worship and the closure of churches, religious exacerbation, all this gave credibility to certain aspects needed in our history. Religion, or more specifically religious fanaticism, it is one of the themes of the film. atheists or believers, all in some point in life we stand before God, the existence of God. Moreover, religion is a cultural determinant which also flows through us, like it or not, we live in a Judeo-Christian society and our morale is largely structured by it. The notions of sin and guilt us touch everyone in varying degrees. Religion is a controversial and difficult, precisely because it is deeply human, and that is why it seemed interesting questions about that. "
Comment by Anonymous
"The interesting question, for me, is: if Elias had not decided to take his family out into the desert to build the church, would those same tragedies occur? It seems unlikely, though, in the reality of the film, one could argue that God would have brought punishment down, regardless. "
to be fair to Catholics if a secular government had not violently abused human rights by banning religion none of his misfortunes would have happened
Comment by Anonymous