El Paraiso premieres in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival and is directed by Enrico Maria Artale, the Italian director of successful Italian TV series like Django and Romulus.
His first feature film, Il terzo tempo (The Third Half), premiered in Orizzonti in 2013, where it received the Opera Prima Premio Pasinetti. In El Paraiso, Artale creates a claustrophobic atmosphere where the viewer feels as trapped as a hapless son, whose dominant mother controls his every move and sabotages any chance of escape.
As in Joshua Marston’s Maria Full of Grace (Sundance 2004), El Paraiso reminds us how disposable the “mules” are, the people who smuggle contraband drugs across borders in their intestinal tract. Here the mule is Ines (Maria del Rosario), a young Colombian who expels the ingested cocaine ovules once she arrives in Rome. This upsets the dysfunctional family dynamics, but Artale makes a smart reversal of roles, and a man ends up smuggling his mother’s ashes into Colombia. This could be read as a sharp satirical take on Saturn devouring his children, but instead is closer to a sentimental journey.
Italian and Hispanic cultures are awash in mama’s boys, men whose development is stunted by their mothers, who in turn perpetuate machismo and render them unable to mature as independent beings. This trait is often represented in comedies, but in El Paraiso it takes a darker turn, perhaps not as lethal as in Psycho and the like, but still mordant and recognizable.
Actress Margarita Rosa De Francisco brings fierce force to her role as the drug-addicted mother who clings to her son while she works as a drug dealer. A well-known Colombian actress, composer, and novelist, she delivers a fearless performance, although the script could have been less asphyxiating and allowed for more nuance beyond a temperamental Latina role. Her past remains shrouded in mystery; as her son discovers, her deception goes back decades. He is nevertheless trapped under her tyrannical rule, and even his final decision to break away from her control obeys her last wishes.
Edoardo Pesce is convincing as the hapless son Julio, well-intentioned but ineffective, showing love and compassion beneath his repressed, submissive persona. Pesce, who contributed the original idea for the script, is a bi-cultural character who seems at ease in both Spanish and Italian. (He won a David di Donatello best actor award for his portrayal of a violent thug in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman.)
This dark, claustrophobic film could easily have veered into telenovela territory, but director Artale mostly avoids the traps of sentimentality – except when the heavy-handed music plays mother-related themes. It’s a relief that no more deaths appear on screen, but we are made aware of the dangers that “mules” face and the human cost of the drug trade.
The cinematography immerses us in this suffocating relationship. Close-ups are perhaps inevitable inside the crowded home and in a nightclub where sweaty bodies convey the joy that Latin music brings to homesick migrants. The camera’s proximity also catches their sense of being caught in a labyrinth dictated by the ruthless laws of the international drug trade. Even a doctor is on the take, delivering medications that serve to dilute the pure imported cocaine; he gets paid in kind.
Music plays an essential part in El Paraiso: the upbeat salsa, cumbias, and rumbas give the film a pulsating rhythm that makes an eloquent contrast with the sadness of its protagonists. Soft boleros bring a near-incestuous intimacy to Julio’s slow dancing with his drunk mother. Legendary Mexican singer Juan Gabriel belts out Amor Eterno (Eternal Love), dripping with filial passion. In the closing scenes, Celia Cruz’ powerful, warm voice delivers the classic bolero Te Busco that accompanies Julio’s return to his Colombian roots, still searching for meaning and identity.
Director, screenplay: Enrico Maria Artale
Cast: Edoardo Pesce, Margarita Rosa De Francisco, Maria Del Rosario, Gabriel Montesi
Producers: Matteo Rovere and Andrea Paris, Carla Altieri and Roberto De Paolis
Cinematography: Francesco Di Giacomo
Editing: Valeria Sapienza
Production companies: Ascent Film, Young Films, in association with Rai Cinema (Italy)
World sales: Bendita Film Sales
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti)
In Italian, Spanish
106 minutes
