Direction: Natalia López
Country: Mexico
This visually intriguing, harshly told, and drastically sad tale directed by Bolivian-born Natalia López (the wife of Mexican director Carlos Reygadas and editor of two of his most known films - Silent Light and Post Tenebras Lux) is infected with dark tones, baffling connections, and a tragic cruelty that makes hard for viewers to follow it in the first place.
Robe of Gems tells us about three women - the wealthy and emotionally unstable Isabel (Nailea Norvind), her housekeeper Maria (Antonia Olivares), and a defeated police chief, Roberta (Aida Roa) - whose paths connect and unfold within a rural Mexican community that is passive in the face of crime, violence, and systemic corruption. They are condemn to eternal misery in a somber film that causes anguish at all times, a fact reinforced by its laconic narrative form and glacially slow sequences.
With tension underlying each scene, this is a restless cinematic experience that ends brutally shocking, leaving us with a bitter taste in our mouths. There’s no innocence in this picture, where the the images - multiple medium close-up shots are used - can make an impact but the dialogues are often uninteresting. Obscurity and pain are part of the scheme in a film incapable of offering a small glimpse of happiness whatsoever. Yet, there is some point and truth in what it tries to say, and that will probably reflect in the way you think about the film after the credits roll. A hard one to watch; some mixed feelings.
