La Zona

Directed by Rodrigo Pla, starring Daniel Jimenez Cacho, Maribel Verdu, Alan Chavez

The title refers to a fictionalized posh district in Mexico City, an arcadia of beautiful homes, resplendent lawns and kids in smart school uniforms, fenced off from the slums with razor wire.

The community is horrified when a wealthy woman is brutally beaten, robbed and murdered by a trio of criminals who have somehow breached the perimeter. So they decide to settle their own business their own way, and have in any case nothing but contempt for a feckless police force.

In the vast lawless sprawls imagined by this movie, the police are ineffectual in rich areas as well as poor: this could well be accurate - or perhaps simply on the verge of being accurate. Either way, it is a smart movie, dramatically lean and mean, exciting and often shocking.

The Guardian

(China Daily 10/21/2008 page20)