Two Monks

Juan Bustillo Oro's Dos monjes (1934) is among the most unusual works of early Mexican cinema. In a monastery, one monk attacks another with a crucifix. Then each of them narrates the same past in his own words, and the two accounts do not agree. Placing two versions of one event side by side puts the film sixteen years ahead of Rashomon. But Bustillo Oro's interest lies less in a philosophy of truth than in atmosphere. Sets borrowed from German expressionism, warped shadows, spaces enlarged past reason: each section is repainted according to the mood of its narrator. Belonging to the first years of sound film in Mexico, the technique is rough in places. Even so the visual daring separates it clearly from the commercial output of its time, and it is now counted among the starting points of Mexican gothic. Who it's for: those curious about early Latin American cinema and expressionist visual language. Who it's not for: viewers who want technical smoothness and naturalistic acting; the performances come from the theatre and look overblown today.