Directed by: Natalia López Gallardo
Distributed by: Monument Releasing
Written by Michael Clawson
80/100
In “Robe of Gems,” violence is disquietingly embedded in the atmosphere of everyday life. In the Mexican countryside, where the unceasing brutality of drug cartels makes kidnappings a common occurrence, those who aren’t traumatized by direct contact with violence must instead contend with the psychological scars of crime and loss. For her feature debut, Mexican-Bolivian director Natalia López Gallardo situates a cryptic narrative within this disturbing social realm. While the storytelling logic can be puzzling, Gallardo’s striking compositions and purposeful camera movement compel you to lean in.
The narrative interweaves the lives of several individuals. There’s Isabel, who moves to the countryside with her two children because of conflict with her husband; Isabel’s maid, Maria, whose sister has recently gone missing; and a policewoman tasked with investigating the area’s crime, while also witnessing her own son’s drift towards the local cartel. Despondency is the dominant tone in these women’s lives: Isabel’s hopes of helping to find Maria’s sister are bereft of any real sense of optimism, while Maria and the policewoman each appear already defeated by their respective connections to the cartel. In calmly observing the banal moments of the women’s day-to-day, Gallardo potently conjures unease and despair as such feelings pervade a tortured community.
When cruelty is inflicted by the cartels, Gallardo approaches the violence with a frank and clinical gaze. Those scenes are unsettling, but the film’s most fascinating moments are less shocking. I was absorbed by the moment where Isabel approaches her gardener for his help in finding Maria’s lost sister. As in other dialogue scenes, Gallardo doesn’t shoot the actors’ faces. Instead, she turns the camera towards the wood that the gardener is chopping, the ax coming down with force throughout the conversation. Gallardo is routinely dislocating our vision from the source of a scene’s emotion. It’s a riveting formal strategy.
Gallardo makes her directing debut after serving as editor on films by her spouse, Carlos Reygadas, and on Lisandro Alonso’s “Jauja.” The influence of those movies is felt in “Robe’s” blend of formalism and social realism. While Gallardo’s film is unwaveringly bleak, its stylistic flourishes stop it short of becoming an exercise in arthouse misery. There’s a remarkable scene in a police station, where in a long traveling shot, the camera moves from family to family as they speak with officers about their missing loved ones. Such maneuvers go far in compassionately illuminating the emotional landscape of the film’s milieu.
“Robe of Gems” Trailer
Michael Clawson is a member of the Seattle Film Critic Society you can follow his passion for film on Letterboxd.