Heli (film)
| Heli | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster of Heli
|
|
| Directed by | Amat Escalante |
| Produced by | Jaime Romandía |
| Written by | Amat Escalante Gabriel Reyes |
| Starring | Armando Espitia Andrea Vergara Linda González Juan Eduardo Palacios |
| Cinematography | Lorenzo Hagerman |
| Edited by | Natalia López |
| Distributed by | Mantarraya |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
105 minutes |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | Spanish |
Heli is a 2013 independent Mexican crime drama film directed by Amat Escalante and produced by Jaime Romandía. Featuring newcomers Armando Espitia, Andrea Vergara, Linda González, and Juan Eduardo Palacios, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Escalante won the Best Director award at the ceremony. While being appreciative of the film's technical aspects, film critics were divided in their opinion of the film itself. Heli was selected to represent Mexico at the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but it was not nominated.
Heli tells the story of the titular protagonist (played by Armando Espitia), a seventeen-year-old boy living with his wife (Linda González) and his sister, Estela (played by Andrea Vergara). The film follows the arcs of these characters and Estela's boyfriend (played by Juan Eduardo Palacios) as they struggle with drugs, violence, and corruption.
Heli is a young man working in a car assembly factory; he lives with his father who also works there, his wife Sabrina, his baby son Santiago and his sister Estela. His life is normal, slow, and without economic prospects, and he suffers from a troubled relationship with his wife.
Estela is revealed to be in a relationship with Beto, a cadet who at 17 is much older than her. Estela, despite Beto's enthusiasm for engaging in sexual relations, is firm in her refusal of him, out of fear of becoming pregnant. Beto proposes they marry and run away together. To do so, he plans to sell some stolen cocaine packages that a corrupt general secretly drew from a cache the army confiscated and burned in an official event. Beto hides the drugs in Heli's house with Estela's consent until the sale. However, Heli discovers the affair and reprimands his sister, locking her in her room, after secretly disposing of the drugs in an isolated water pit for cattle.
Later that night, some federal policemen storm Heli's house, killing Heli's father when he tries to defend himself thinking they were being assaulted. The officers take Heli and Estela by force (Sabrina and their son not being present at the time) and with a badly beaten Beto they try to find the stolen cocaine. When they find out Heli destroyed the package, the policemen abandon Heli's father's body on the road, and drive to a secure house where drug dealers harshly torture Beto to the point of killing him. Heli's life is spared, but Estela is taken elsewhere. The dealers hang Beto's body from a pedestrian bridge, leaving a badly hurt Heli at the scene.
...
Wikipedia