Satanás - Profile of a Killer

Bogotá. Three lives run separately in the same city: a middle aged man who teaches English, fought in Vietnam and lives with his mother; a young woman working in a bar who gets drawn into a swindle; and a priest losing his faith. The three narratives run side by side and at one point cross, in a restaurant. Andrés Baiz writes and directs. The Mexican actor Damián Alcázar takes the lead. The source is Mario Mendoza's novel Satanás, which rests on a real event. On 4 December 1986, at the Pozzetto restaurant in Bogotá, the Vietnam veteran Campo Elías Delgado killed his mother and people in his building and then the diners in the restaurant. It remains one of the most discussed mass killings in Colombia. What interests the film is not the event but the accumulation leading to it. Alcázar's character almost never raises his voice; the violence arrives at the end of a long quiet. It was Colombia's submission for the foreign language award at the 80th Academy Awards and was not nominated. It took best film and best actor at the Monte Carlo film festival. Andrés Baiz went on to direct episodes of Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. Who it is for: viewers who follow Latin American crime cinema and dark drama from real events. Who it is not for: the final section is direct and long, the three strands are not evenly weighted, and the film offers no explanation.