On July 24, the Latin American premier for HELI (2013) by Mexican director Amat Escalante took place at the Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico.

Anyone who has seen the film agrees that HELI is heavy… The film opens with a bloody teenaged boy beaten by thugs and hung to death from a bridge with his pants down. HELI proves a veritable Hell of a world. It’s a lawless desert where the sun has set on things like justice, morality and basic human decency. After all, what kind of civilized place has a female cop shoving her breasts in a young married man's face when he is looking for his disappeared sister or when the most dangerous drug cartels are mistaken for cops?

‘Heli’ (played by newcomer Armando Espitia) is a 17 year-old boy with the same name who lives in a house in the middle of a barren desert in Mexico. Heli's highest education is High School. He is an honest young man who works in a factory to support his young wife (played by Linda González) and baby daughter and they live together with his father and his little sister Estela (played by Adrea Vergara). Their house is a humble white stucco building seemingly in the middle of nowhere. 

Heli's sister Estela has a boyfriend (played by Juan Eduardo Palacios) who trains daily to fight for the drug war, but to fight for which side? His training is overseen by American militia but are they out to defend or support the cartels? Somehow Estela’s boyfriend gets hold of two packages of cocaine and stores it at his girlfriend's house, just before they have promised each other to wed. Heli mistakenly discovers the cocaine and in a panic, he disposes of it immediately; no way will he let it touch his family.

The drug cartels descend upon Heli’s house to retrieve the cocaine but of course the drugs are nowhere to be found. They shoot Heli 's father down and take Heli, Estela and her boyfriend hostage. Estela’s boyfriend and Heli are tortured, their afflictions filmed and the atrocities posted to Youtube by a numbed witness for bored recreation. Meanwhile, Estela goes missing and is subject to unimaginable horrors robbing her of her childhood overnight. 

There is no justice in this desert, unless taken into one’s own hands. Heli tracks down one of his tortures and kills him with his bare hands. Where is the cowboy to save the day in this deserted chaos? There is none. It is a free-for-all and no one can be trusted. What makes HELI so heavy? On a bigger picture, beyond being yet another drug movie, one has to wonder if this seemingly hopeless and infertile wasteland is symbolic for a desiccating world swiftly and assuredly losing its humanity and its substance.

HELI (2013) held its world premier in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the Palme d’Or. Amat Escalante won the prize at Cannes for Best Director.

Written by Vanessa McMahon

View trailer here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SPTikDsXKg

View facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/HeliPelicula