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Reviews
La voz de los silenciados (2013)
curious mix of silent film staples with contemporary issues
The static opening shot confronting us with the main character as she cries into the camera relating to the rats in the NYC subway scurrying to exist before a color cut to the opening credits with surprisingly warm tropical music...is all rather jarring. This opening illustrates the themes of the film where on one hand you have this Chaplin-esque slapstick quality of simply showing through exaggeration set against the realism of human trafficking. The more artistic shot selections of views through a keyholes, characters breaking the fourth wall, a talking stuffed penguin, and surrealist dream sequences gets juxtaposed to the abrupt depictions of drugs, mutilation, and rape. The minimal sound effects in doing a silent film expressing the deaf character's world helps lend itself to the NYC atmosphere as her character slowly understands her situation and gets to experience a few instances of American materialism before despair leading to the film's conclusion. In all an ambitious film with a lot of ideas that makes me curious to see how the director will develop.