Después de Lucia dir. by Michel Franco (review)

Después de Lucía, a Mexican film by Michel Franco, is a portrait of adolescence and the struggles teenagers face in modern society: loneliness, desire to belong, consequences of one’s decisions, drugs, sex, and morality. All of these issues and more are examined through the prism of another prevalent social concern, bullying. The film, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, graphically illustrates the cruelty that is teenage bullying, evoking such strong emotions that it is at points difficult to watch. Yet, at the same time these strong emotional responses make it impossible to turn away, forcing the viewer to wrestle with the greater questions.

Después de Lucía examines the ugly reality of humanity’s cruelty from both the view of the teenage victim and her father. Franco tells the story of a family broken by the death of a wife and mother, Lucía, the result of an automobile accident. Roberto (Hernán Mendoza), who is devastated by the loss of his wife, moves himself and his daughter Alejandra (Tessa Ia) from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City, both of them seeking to avoid the reality of the loss of Lucía, trying, instead, to just press on with life. Roberto finds a job in a restaurant, while Alejandra goes to school and seems to find a new group of friends. The turning point of the film occurs as Alejandra goes to a party with her new friends and makes a poor decision: she begins drinking and then has sex with a boy who films it on his cell phone. The young man proceeds to post the video online, and the next day the harassment begins. At first, the mistreatment is only “name calling”; but it quickly escalates to physical violence including force feeding, urinating on her, and rape. No one seems to recognize the emotional impact of the bullying on Alejandra: not her father, not Alejandra’s teachers, not school administrators, and not Alejandra herself, since she remains passive and simply “allows” her classmates to torment her hoping it will eventually stop. She tells no one about her suffering, not even her father, who is so wrapped up in his grief that he fails to see what is happening to his daughter. It is not until an overnight school field trip, when Alejandra turns up missing, that anyone acknowledges a problem exists. Someone leaves the video on the door step for her father to find. After viewing it, he sets about to find his daughter and seek revenge. Upon finding the teenager responsible for the video, Roberto kidnaps him, gags him, binds his hands and feet, puts him in a boat, takes him out on the open ocean, and throws him overboard. The movie ends with Roberto in the boat motoring back toward the shore leaving the audience to contemplate Alejandra’s plight and her father’s action without commentary of any type: no dialogue, no narration, no musical score.

Although the film is a work of fiction, Franco’s cinematography gives the film more of a “documentary” feel. Franco makes the viewer feel as if he is a firsthand witness to the horrific actions taking place on the screen. The camera placement and the fact that the camera remains stationary throughout the film serve to enhance this witness effect. Many times, the character moves out of the cameras’ view or has his back to the cameras, leaving the viewer with only his sense of hearing to interpret the action. There is no zooming in or out of the camera, no panoramic shots. It is as if the viewer is seeing the events in real time from his seat. Also, the omission of any musical score to prompt the viewer’s emotion further enhances the witness effect leaving the viewer to interpret the actions of the characters on her own. These techniques serve to frustrate the viewer because one must sit and watch a sweet, innocent girl being tortured, and can do nothing about...