A first film that is both modest and ambitious.

It is modest in its small budget, use of local actors, filmed in black and white and telling a local Mexican story.  It is ambitious in its cinema style and in the scope of exploration of themes.

The setting is a generalised peasant revolt against government oppression – that could stand for so many uprisings and liberation movements all over Latin America during the 20th century.  The film opens with a grim sequence of military torture and comes back to it at the end.

The central characters are three generations of peasants who play music and sing in the cafes and marketplaces.  However, they are also involved in the guerrilla warfare.  The son is a leader.  The old father, a riveting performance by Don Angel Tavira, a gnarled old man with a hand missing but who can play the violin beautifully.  He also has other plans, using his violin as a decoy to save the peasants.  The music-loving captain appreciates the music, but was not born yesterday…

The Violin takes its audiences (except for Latin Americans) into an unfamiliar world, a world of poverty, of long systematic oppression, of the taking up of arms in defence of a livelihood and justice, where peaceful methods and negotiation are impossible.

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto:

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.