One of the most popular traditions during the San Sebastián festival is that of criticize the jury and its decisions, walk or not walk. But in 2022 all the forecasts were fulfilled and the Golden Shell has gone to a film with which we can all, more or less, agree without taking our heads: far from the controversial ‘Sparta’ or from terrible tapes like ‘A woman’, ‘Los reyes del mundo’ sounds on paper like something seen a thousand times, but its spectacular artistic section manages to elevate it to the altars of the cinema.
Fear and disgust in Medellín
It cannot be said that ‘The Kings of the World’ does a great job of promoting tourism in Colombia, of course: during its footage we will see all the gossip of the system to abandon a group of teenagers to their fate who roam the streets of Medellin in search of their fate with a clean machete. The saddest poverty, dirt and freedom in the world soak each frame creating a constant melancholy.
We could now be talking about a clone movie of torn childhood, fortuitous adolescence, and violence for violence’s sake, but Laura Mora’s work goes much further, at a midpoint between ‘The Goonies’, the social denunciation and the dreamlike journey. These five children are a found family, and together it is like they must face a life that they should not livefacing not only the dangers of his country but also something even worse: bureaucracy.
‘The kings of the world’, from its first minute, does not show salvation for its characters, who live in a continuous state of emotional rootlessness and violence as the only game they know. They are children who have grown up too soon, with no other possibility than the scoundrel for their own survival, but deep down they just want a place where they have the same opportunities as everyone else. Opportunities that Colombia repeatedly denies them.
the danger of the streets
The sense of constant alertness looms throughout the film, as the gang is warned over and over again that no place will ever be safe for them. Not a house, not a forest, not a street: they are adolescents whose despair and mistrust of the system mark the film. Every minute can be the last, and that is why they prefer not to fear anything: Why, if even in a happy ending they are not allowed to smile?
It is true that sometimes the dream component which differentiates ‘The Kings of the World’ from other similar projects (with “one day all the men on earth fell asleep…” as a continuous leitmotif) does not always suit him, but it does not hinder the -let’s call it- adventure that length and width of a country as beautiful in its landscapes as deadly in its nature.
The movie tells us about the hope of a new Colombia, truncated by reality, the country facing its utopia. It’s hard throughout a present that connects the dots between lost children, murdered mothers, street fights, violent gangs and stolen land. ‘The Kings of the World’ is direct in its initial shots, in Medellín, and more precious later, on a journey with a destination but without end in which the group embarks, but always has its own voice that never stops speaking.
fair winner
‘The Kings of the world’ intends to open a necessary conversation in his country of origin with a reflection between the symbolism of the work (watch out for that rotten flag in the brothel) and the touch of hard reality that its protagonists make us part of, who Searching for their Arcadia they meet their own destiny and they can only reach with their imagination that Colombia that does not yet exist.
A fair winner of the Golden Shell for which perhaps a touch to the spectacular cast would have been nice, that falls into the decadent portrait (perhaps sometimes too much) from a country that is still recovering from drug trafficking, but to which he has a long way to go. Even if it’s a clean machete.