"Purgatorio, A Journey Into the Heart of the Border" Delivers What it Should

Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border, is a haunting portrayal of daily life on the U.S.-Mexican boundary that paints a stark, disconcerting, and equivocal portrait of the most iconic of third world frontiers: the 1,954 mile demarcation between the most powerful industrialized nation in the world, and her destitute, impoverished southern neighbor.

     Director Rodrigo Reyes' montage of interwoven scenes varies greatly in scope and subject, from panoramic long shots of desolate desert scenes, and impoverished, crowded urban environments; to poignant close ups of euthanized feral dogs, disenchanted would-be immigrants, and slack jawed asylum residents.  The emotional nature of the film, comprised of interviews with individuals on both sides of the border, is as ambiguous as it is opinionated; depicting but never condoning the ideals of the strange personages it features.

     Purgatorio, which closed the 49th Annual Chicago Film Fest as its final premiering production on October 22 and 23, reveals a number of memorable, surreal characters; among them, a pontifical, determined ecological steward removing trail markers made of rubbish to confuse potential border-crossers; a despondent publisher that reflects bemusedly on the violent, morbid content of what has become daily news in Mexican border states; a team of indifferent dog catchers; a mourning family at a funeral for policemen killed in the line of duty; a beleaguered asylum inmate; a ludicrous politician who dreams of a day when everyone south of the border can go to Disneyland; and a duo of disillusioned emigrants postulating bleakly about their options as they prepare to cross the border into the United States.

     The director's artwork portrays little bias and even less of an opinion, as the subjects are free to do that on their own.  Among the most harrowing images are those of the silver painted, glittering, angelic faces and placards of impassive protestors lining a dusty highway, with their signs carrying religious slogans calling for retribution and reconciliation in a world of violence, corruption, poverty, and pain.

     Reyes responded passionately to the question and answer session immediately following the October 22 screening of Purgatorio at AMC Theatres East at the Chicago International Film Festival.

    "The order (along the border) is the order of who's strongest.  It's hard to look at it, right?" Reyes told a relatively dejected audience.  "Because it's so beautiful and yet so devastating."

     Reyes captured the 80 minute film in a month of travelling along the border, from California to southern Texas, with a skeleton crew of four, a van, and a few cameras. 

     "People were very happy to talk to us," said Reyes.  "What mattered was the moment.  They talked about their lives in very basic terms."

     Depicting the destruction and duality of border life became important to Reyes when, as a Mexican-American growing up in the United States, he began to perceive that "people saw me as someone who had crossed the border.  I visited the border, and wanted to capture that intensity."

     "Every character has a little bit of truth," said Reyes, in response to an audience members' condemnation of 'Gadget Dan', a border guard patrolling the boundary for trail markers, which he collects and destroys.  "What I respected was his passion," said Reyes, contrasting Gadget Dan with the "deranged politician living in la-la-land" who hyped international visits for Mexican citizens to Disneyworld, a place the official described as "the happiest place on earth."

     Perhaps the most disturbing of all the collected images is the gentle suffocation of a tiny, euthanized dog by overworked, disillusioned dog catchers in a desolate border town.  If the director's intention was to illicit sympathy in an unlikely and disproportionate place, he absolutely succeeds. 

     "I think, in America, we think of a lot of issues as good and bad," said Reyes.  "If anything, the film does a good job of showing how embarrassing the border situation is.  There is all this potential for chaos and destruction.  Countries have to get naked; they can't wear all the trappings and the makeup."

     Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border has premiered at a number of international venues, including the Warsaw, Vancouver, Chicago, and Los Angeles International film festivals.