“Lavaperros is not a drug movie, it’s something else,” says Caleño director Carlos Moreno when referring to his most recent film. Although it was about to premiere in April last year, the pandemic caused everything to take an unexpected turn. “I think I felt like when you’re in a coma,” Moreno recalls in a talk with EL TEMPS from Chile, where he’s finishing a miniseries about the rock band Els Presoners.
We invite you to read: Music, the tropics and crime: the cinema of Carlos Moreno
“I thought I was going to get stuck, but we meet again,” he adds about this tape mixing action and a touch of raw humor. But now Moreno was able to recover from this ‘cinematic coma’.
Lavaperros, written by the writers Pilar Quintana (recent winner of the Alfaguara Novel Award) and Antonio García Àngel, will premiere on Friday, March 5 on Netflix. And the idea is to be able to take it to the cinemas soon. “We live in a situation that brought us first to the platform (…). What has happened in the world invites filmmakers to stand firm in order to tell stories regardless of where they are seen. I exclude myself from any agenda of those who want to give them only priority in cinemas, it’s really about explaining it to people, and with this premiere on the platform I’m very proud of the film, ”he says.
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And what is Lavaperros? The answer is simple: it’s an adventure that revolves around characters who have their lives hanging by a thread. Some move in the criminal world and others dream of being able to solve their problems quickly. There is a declining mobster (Don Oscar, played by Christian Tappan); a bodyguard -who is called Bobolitro- who seems to combine his work very well with faith and devotion to Jesus Christ and, next to them, other characters who move between a wave of betrayal and violence, told with a sometimes visceral and sometimes funny style.
Bobolitro is a character full of contrasts within the plot.
“There’s a character who is literally in charge of bathing dogs of a different kind in this universe of house-dwelling bandits who think big. Putting that title on this film was a challenge, because all the time the story is playing to the limit and proposing to the viewers something that leads them to make wrong assumptions, ”says Moreno.
“The film talks about the social turmoil we are all in and touches on politicians, guilds or what dogs bathe in. It shows those who are always subjected to despicable tasks or dirty work (…). Decadent characters with a crooked morale in a very small universe “, emphasizes the director, who took the opportunity to inject some humor and some caricature into the plot.
Without going into details, Lavaperros also shows something that is lost and that is essential for the protagonists to have some peace. It goes from silver to innocence or common sense, through a story in which one lets go of several laughs, while the situation of the protagonists is gradually complicated.
The film seems to be influenced by characters such as Jackie Brown, by Quentin Tarantino, This cult classic from 1997 in which a stewardess ends up betraying her principles and those who move around her while life seems to give her no way out. Not in vain is one of Moreno’s favorite movies.
It shows those who are always subjected to despicable tasks or dirty work
Lavaperros is the fourth film by the 52-year-old director who began his film career with Dog eats dog (2008) and which also led to the big screen All your dead (2011) i Long live the music! –free version of the novel of the same name by Andrés Caicedo-, which was released in 2014.
He also directed the series Wilderness (also for Netflix); episodes of the series Rubirosa (broadcast on Clear Video) and the documentary Alien Wars by HBO, among other productions.
Christian Tappan is a declining fan who lives in Tuluá.
“There’s no epic here, but rather this idea of thinking, ‘And so much fuss, so much violence about it?’ “, Reflects the director. Stage floor he manages not to lose sight of the cruel evolution of Mr. Oscar, showing that he is more dangerous than he seems and that he cannot maintain his power, reflected in a cracked and almost abandoned country house, as a metaphor for his evils decisions and of the violence that surrounds it.
Precisely, the actor Christian Tappan stands out, thanks to a grandiose interpretation of this type of villain who is sunk into his excesses.
Lavaperros also manages to make a social critique, sometimes uncomfortable; takes the viewer to a kind of roller coaster in which there is a certain empathy for all this caricature of evil and lack, but then reappears a brutality already normalized or assumed to remember that in the place where the story unfolds everything moves under the idea that there are powerful and subordinates and they are always in conflict to savor power.
“I think there are more bandits than bandit movies“And everyone demands authority, but no one is willing to comply.” It’s a reflection that Carlos Moreno shares and could be part of the discussion that can be generated after watching the film. It’s time to see it. the.
Andrés Hoyos Vargas
@ AndresHoy1