‘Cadejo blanco’: The beast that swallows everything

The American justin lernerafter shooting two dramas in his hometown, the acclaimed “Girlfriend” and “The Automatic Hate”, dares to face the social reality of Guatemala, its host country, in ‘Cadejo Blanco’screened in the Official Section of the 25th Malaga Film Festival and nominated for best Ibero-American film at the Ariel Awards, which delves into the serious crisis that the Central American country is suffering from gangs and how this affects women much more.

Guatemala is, according to the Mutual Support Group (GAM) and other international organizations, one of the 15 most violent countries in the world, having committed more than 60,000 murders in the last decade. According to the Women’s Observatory of the Public Prosecutor, 37% of reported crimes relate to crimes perpetrated against women (including sexual violence). Femicides increased by 28.5% in the last 2021, 652 women were killed in an extremely violent way. In addition, 90% of the murders go unpunished.

In front of a desolate image, Lerner tells the story of Sarita, a young woman struggling to find out what happened to her sister Clara, who disappeared after an argument with her boyfriend., a boy put a mara. Hence, the director’s argument in favor of women’s rights enters fully into portraying this phenomenon and how they trap the new generations, forming a perverse vicious circle that It shows the high probability that just leaving the criminal organization in a coffin.

Powerful thriller with strong social criticism

Here, Lerner creates a true anti-heroine, Sarita, beautifully played by Karen Martínez. The actress carries all the weight of this powerful social thriller, whose denunciation sinks into a film whose style can evoke that of the Mexican “Miss Bala” and its respective American remake, even if the way of interpreting a relatively foreign reality to Lerner is more reminiscent of the masterful ‘Maria, full of grace’, the Colombian film of his compatriot Joshua Marstonwhich also featured a young woman who faced adversity alone and also narrated a thriller related to drug trafficking.

Unlike the stories of Guatemalan filmmakers such as César Díaz or Jayro Bustamante, who have made dramas with a strong denunciation content and who have deeply investigated the reality of their protagonists, Lerner brings a touch of the Hollywood commercial thriller to tell a story that keeps audiences in constant tension. and that, moreover, it is able to reliably show a reality that has made Guatemala one of the most violent countries in the world, showing a society dominated by fear, which is greater among the female population, something that Lerner has denounced with actions apparently all days, like that women have to go to a party together and come back only with questions with VTC drivers to leave a trace of their routes with.

‘white cadiz’; whose title refers to the urban legend of this protective spirit in the form of a dog, which can be black or white and helps find the way back for those intoxicated souls, is a magnificent social thriller, a true discovery whose main virtue is its lead actress, a sublime Karen Martínez who, no doubt, already aspires to follow the line of other great interpreters of his country such as María Mercedes Coroy or María Telón.

Note: 7

The best: Lerner’s time management with the thriller. The superb interpretation of Karen Martínez.

Worse: It ends up leaving aside the social side in its final part, in which it ends up embracing too much an excessively Hollywood tone.