Cadejo Blanco – Film Review
by Hugh Maguire

Director – Justin Lerner
Writer – Justin Lerner
Stars – Karen Martínez, Rudy Rodriguez, Pamela Martínez

A Guatemalan crime thriller is not something that opens in your local multiplex on an average Friday, and what a pity that is based on this gripping crime tale!  Slowly paced, and yet not slow, we are gripped until the final moments as the narrative unfolds and we, along with the protagonist, peel away the layers of truths and falsehoods to reveal what actually happened.

Living in a poor neighbourhood of Guatemala City, Sarita accompanies her sister, Bea, reluctantly, to a dodgy bar in an already dodgy neighbourhood.  This is a not-very-glamorous night out. Bea is all sexual glitter and doped out of her head, and Sarita is presented as the plain Jane bore who would rather be at home watching box sets with her granny on the sofa.  She returns home leaving Bea to her own affairs, only Bea never returns home again and the worst is feared. With a grim and solid determination, Sarita follows up on whatever links she has. She follows her sister’s on-again, off-again, sexual partner to the shadier parts of Puerto Barrios, on the Caribbean Sea, a six-hour bus ride away. Starting off as she means to continue we can get an early sense of her steely resolve and toughness. She is a survivor. Unlikely as it seems she inveigles her way into a crime gang.   To everyone’s surprise, including the viewer and her own, she passes the tests set to her by the crime boss. She has no choice in the matter and these scenes are among the most gripping and effective in the film – crime is not Hollywood glamour.   There is no building soundtrack or edgy cinematography – the crime is swift, matter-of-fact and almost prosaic. Meanwhile, we are ever-conscious of the risk Sarita is facing and almost come to imagine ourselves in her shoes.  How would we react in the circumstances?  She displays little emotion for most of the film and instead, it is as if she is a moral conscience.  In this, there is some of the quality of Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo (2022) – the put-upon donkey who sees all, the good and the bad, but never judges.

There are elements of social realism that suggest at times we are in some world of documentaries on crime gangs.   The narrative is all the while enhanced by a team of understated effective actors.   There is a Ken Loach ordinariness to their acting and their looks and a Love Hate–style dialogue, albeit in Spanish.  There is no muscled-up crime boss with reflective sunglasses, no big cars or bigger mansions.  This very ordinariness makes the film all the more engaging and credible.