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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