Savages

"No te enteras del mundo en que estás" ("You're not even aware of the world you live in": this line more or less sums up a movie that has to do with the many duplicitous ways in which ignorant... well-meaning?... people sustain and nourish a system that brutalizes and marginalize both citizens and immigrants. The rough, hand-held filming is interesting, as are other "brutally honest" aspect of the treatment of the theme. Other Spanish films of the same sub-genre (EL BOLA, BARRIO, SOLAS, BWANA) maybe were... more honest and perhaps a bit less saccharin. Admirable, despite the unfortunate amount of tears and tugs at the heart. This has to do of course with the play the movie is based on: José Luis Alonso de Santos' SALVAJES. One is left wondering in the end of the topic of Spain's "others" isn't woefully fetishized.