Celebrating the purpose of cinema at the London Film Festival fits the tremendous Mexican film Miss Bala perfectly. It's the story of a furious love between a 23 year old beauty and the number one drug beast of Mexico, Lino Valdez. The film of Gerardo Naranjo is a sensitive and smart crossover; a realistic horror of everyday Mexican crime and an action fairy tale of Laura Guerrero.
Laura's only dream is to be the beauty queen. But what costs does she need to pay in return? The drama is really well executed and planned out; the main character Laura is almost silent throughout but she is manipulated and lead by the gangster from the word go. As in the fashion world, she is the body of the beast who is taking control of everything. So the night when Laura loses her girlfriend (her manager), she 'gains' the most cruel man of Mexico. Valdez steps takes a step towards her, in the closet, and throws money on the floor. Their lovely affair starts in that sacred moment. Laura does what he says and she survives. But she cannot stop the search to find her girlfriend. She goes to the police and starts giving information. She breaks the rule of the mysterious criminal. Laura finds herself next to him in a couple of minutes where their relationship deepens. Now he will help her if she helps him. And this goes on and on. Until Laura doesn't see him walk into her house and then the real affair begins.
Miss Bala Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxOhqJ98QJY&feature=related
Laura soon finds out that the things she arranges are only little pieces of the jigsaw. Her life has a double meaning; she has to deal with the toughest situations in crime but she also has to be a beauty queen. She gets to her point of desire trembling, and crying not to understand the reasons.
After the screening Naranjo standing with the beautiful actress at the Leicester Square Vue Cinema told the audience that he once read an article about a beauty queen captured by police through an investigation and found out she had been part of a big drug mob in Mexico. That's where the idea came from. It is a really brave film but as Stephanie Sigman (Miss Bala) points out:
"This film doesn't point fingers at anyone, it is the inner side of people that needs to be changed".
Miss Bala is a true cinematic experience: it is socially mind-triggering, beautifully shot (by Hungarian cinematographer Mátyás Erdélyi) and fearfully executed. The great advantage of Miss Bala is that until the last second you have no prediction of what is actually going to happen. You just become Miss Bala herself and walk in her high heels. The performance of Stephanie Sigman is wonderfully cute and she is very simple and natural but also unpredictable herself. At the last second of the film she recognizes the purpose of all the actions arranged by Valdez which affected everything for her. The purpose that she will have to think about for the rest of her life...But she is not the type who is going to do that. She keeps on living in a weird corner of the world while we will think about the unacceptable acts that have taken place.
