The Strategy of the Snail

An old house in Bogotá. A great many tenants live in it; another family in each room and a shared life in the courtyard. The owner wants to sell the land and brings an eviction case. The tenants hire a lawyer; he tries every legal means to drag it out. Time is won but the outcome is clear. Then one of them has an idea. Jacinto, an old anarchist who came from Spain, proposes not defending the house but something else: the building will be moved. The walls, the doors, the stairs, all of it will be taken away. Sergio Cabrera directs. Frank Ramírez, Fausto Cabrera, Florina Lemaitre and Humberto Dorado are in the cast. It is a Colombian production, made in 1993. The film was among the most watched local productions in Colombia to that date and is counted a classic. Fausto Cabrera is the director's father and plays Jacinto. The matter it treats is whose interests the law serves; the tenants use it and it does not protect them. The narrative proceeds as comedy and, although its subject is eviction, it is not hopeless. The film takes class difference and urban redevelopment in Colombia as direct subjects. The narrative uses a narrator; the events are recounted to a journalist years later. The dismantling of the building is held long and how the plan works is shown in detail. The gesture at the end sums up the film's whole stance. Its limit is age; the narrative is long, there are many characters, and the pace uneven. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American cinema and social comedy. Who it is not for: it is long, crowded, and the humour local.