The Untamed (2016) (Spanish Language)- BFI London Film Festival 2016

100min

Genre:      Drama, Mystery

Director:   Amat Escalante

Cast:        Simone Bucio, Ruth Ramos, Jesus Meza…and more

Writers:    Amat Escalante and Gibrán Portela

-Synopsis-

The lives of different people in modern day Mexico are irrevocably changed by chance meetings and a mysterious supernatural force, which unleashes their raw sexuality and unlocks their innermost desires, but there’s a price to be paid for a return to our more savage nature in this truly bizarre drama with a dark fantastical undercurrent from writer/director Amat Escalante.

There’s no argument that Mexican film is a prime example of the globalisation of cinema; a country without much of an international cinematic legacy which has made waves across the globe over the last two decades, through excellent envelope-pushing human dramas and crime stories, and thanks to Oscar-winning filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Escalante’s Mexican erotic fable ‘The Untamed’ (La región salvaje) is arguably the most bizarre entry in this year’s London Film Festival, but we guarantee it will be eyebrow-raising… if not downright shocking.

The film is deliberately provocative, particularly with its highly eroticised and borderline lewd nature, featuring full nudity and graphic scenes of both straight and gay sex… and something altogether “different”. Despite its curious narrative, this little indie has a distinctly naturalistic feel, as do all the performances in it, and thanks to an ominous score there is an unsettling atmosphere and a sense of mystery throughout most of the movie.

‘The Untamed’ follows the disturbing fates of disparate but connected people in provincial central Mexico; young mother of two “Alejandra” (Ruth Ramos) who’s stuck in a troubled marriage with conflicted husband “Angel” (Jesus Meza), her brother and lonely gay male nurse “Fabián” (Eden Villavicencio) with his own struggles, and “Verónica” (Simone Bucio) who walks in from the wild into the local hospital with a mysterious injury and an apparent answer to everyone’s problems, thus setting them on a bizarre path with major consequences.

This is one of those films that’s difficult to analyse without revealing plot, but we’ll try to keep things as vague as possible. Thanks to a core element that’s somewhat other-worldly, it’s tempting to describe ‘The Untamed’ as a Sci-fi film, and to a lesser extent even a horror flick. No doubt it has those elements and Escalante seems to take a leaf out of David Cronenberg’s book, in particular with 1975’s ‘Shivers’; but it’s only a small part of the film which really kicks in during the 3rd act, and is ultimately just the catalyst for an unsettling fable about giving in to our base sexual instincts, and the dangers of sexual addiction.

Indeed its original Spanish name ‘La Región Salvaje’ is more accurately translated as “The Wild Side” or “The Wild Region”, which refers not only to the place in the isolated woods where mind & body-altering encounters take place, but also that part of our brain and our instinct which links us to our savage origins and base desires, one which societal constructs will never completely tame. Which makes the film a study of sorts, about the power that sexuality has to overwhelm our psyche, and how it’s so different from every other element of it.

‘The Untamed’ is also very much a film about how we relate to sex in a society of strict social norms and prudish attitudes towards it, Escalante exposes outdated traditional attitudes towards homosexuality and the grip that patriarchy still holds over Mexican society, giving the film a progressive feminist angle too. But its mixed messages make the film even more confounding than its bizarre visuals, and morally ambiguous to boot; the film is both a critique of how we’ve suppressed our base instincts and our nature, but simultaneously a warning story about the consequences of returning to them.

Despite holding a morbid fascination with its inherent weirdness, ‘The Untamed’ is too ambiguous to be truly captivating, both in terms of its morality (or lack thereof) and the narrative itself. Both its subtle and overt messaging don’t add up to anything profound, ultimately failing to ask too many questions and refusing to answer any whatsoever, particularly in regards to the lynchpin of the story which makes it a curiosity, but is never explored, even superficially.

Apart from “Alejandra”, the film only ever skims the surface its character’s emotional complexities and histories, making it less convincing when each of them takes a huge psychological left-turn. But the ambiguity of ‘The Untamed’ will have an allure for some, making it a mystery never to be solved, and adding to an undeniable lurid fascination which the film holds. One thing’s for sure, ‘The Untamed’ doesn’t pander to expectations or clichés, and will linger in the memory long after you’ve seen it… for better or worse.

The Bottom Line…

Part gritty dysfunctional family drama, part grotesquely erotic fable, and all sex; ‘The Untamed’ is a bizarre and morally ambiguous tale packed with symbolism but not enough direction or substance. A journey to nowhere for the audience and the characters, but one so unique and morbidly fascinating that it makes Amat Escalante’s provocative little Mexican indie more than worth a look.

‘The Untamed’ is out in Mexico, with no current UK release date.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Shivers (1975)

A mysterious strain of parasites begin to infect the residents of an apartment complex, turning them into mindless and murderous zombie-like sex maniacs in this early body-horror classic from legendary horror writer/director David Cronenberg.

Directed by David Cronenberg and starring Paul Hampton, Barbara Steele and Lynn Lowry among others.

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