“WE ARE THE FLESH” (“Tenemos la carne”) - A Journey To Carnality

by AMOS LASSEN

I see a lot of movies but I do not think I have ever seen anything like “We are the Flesh” and that is not a good thing or a bad thing— it is simply a statement. It is a visionary and bizarre slice of Mexican art house cinema and an extraordinary and unsettling film experience that is a “sexually charged and nightmarish journey into an otherworldly dimension of carnal desire and excess, as well as a powerful allegory on the corrupting power of human desire”. In plainer language, it is an extreme Mexican fiesta of incest, cannibalism and explicit sex.

A brother and sister seek refuge with a filthy old man who coerces the siblings into incestuous sexual intercourse, and thereafter into cannibalizing a luckless soldier in this demented portrait of humanity.  Writer and director, Emiliano Rocha Minter brings us thoroughly arresting vision of what he sees as hell and this is by no means a regular movie. It is almost entirely inside a derelict apartment with Noe Hernandez playing a grotesque man who is demonically charismatic to the point that that other characters fall under his spell. Every narrative development in the film — from a young woman (Maria Evoli) dropping to her knees to perform explicitly shot oral sex on her brother (Diego Gamaliel), to a soldier relaxing to the point of near-acquiescence as his throat is slashed and drained into a bucket is driven by this unnamed antagonist. But them the word “antagonist” may be a poor choice of words for troll since there is no moral here and no concepts “right” and “wrong.” Much of its most vivid imagery is purpose-built to question the moral values society projects onto biological matter that include human meat ground to mush and in a bucket; a clitoral close-up; a pipette inserted casually into a hole in a boy’s temple; a sister’s droppings into her brother’s mouth. The picture’s primary pluses are visual since the script is sparse Yollotl Alvarado’s camera becomes the scalpel laying bare the meat of the movie.

“We Are the Flesh” is also perversely erotic: Sex scenes are shot with delight and music selections are astute, with a rousing rendition of the Mexican national anthem immediately prior to an extreme bout of bloodletting that foregrounds the inherent violence of its patriotic lyrics.

“We Are the Flesh” fits into the new wave of Mexican cinema not overly concerned with the audience’s comfort. It is not quite a horror film, although it is certainly horrific as a Grand Guignol carnival of every conceivable grotesquerie. It is filled with body fluids and perversion, this sexually graphic bad trip of a movie follows a brother and sister who stumble into the dominion of a crazed man who survives on malice and the grim-looking meat stews that he boils down into a highly flammable liquor and who offers them shelter at a cost. He. The acting style is almost as extreme as the subject matter and we see it as part performance, part seizure.

The troll’s name is Mariano (“Miss Bala” star Noé Hernandez), his face is twisted into a demonic gnarl of primitive desire, and he’s ready to prove his point with vile depravities. The film is a Mexican response to “Saló,” as it takes the defining tropes of his country’s contemporary filmmaking, liberates them from narrative logic, and stretches them across the screen. Minter has created a psychedelic slipstream of obscenities that inserts brief moments of context between incest, cannibalism, and necrophilia. He seems determined to reflect, explain, and ultimately resist the plague of corruption and drug-related savagery that has swept across Mexico and is direct about it. “We Are the Flesh” is maddeningly abstract.

It all begins with Mariano fidgeting around a decrepit apartment and we are introduced, slowly at first, to nausea. From there it is a spiral downward as the film sinks deeper into the darkness.

New characters confuse any idea of a story and the film becomes ever less obvious and more narrow. Mariano yells, “The spirit does not reside within the flesh, the flesh is the spirit itself! So I kindly ask all your lowlifes devour me until nothing is left.” If we are to understand that this is a metaphor for Mexico eating itself alive, it is very difficult to watch. This is a movie for those who like their transgressive cinema with an equally extreme art house flavor.

Hernandez’s performance as an impish freak is both captivating and repulsive. He is not such a silver-tongued devil but rather a conniving weirdo with a master plan to be reborn. Informing the young pair that morals don’t apply anymore, he coerces them into having sex with each other as while he kills the brother and the sister rubs her crotch against the corpse. Later, the brother magically reappears looking revitalized and all commanding, promising them he’ll never leave again. Those who take film seriously will be divided over this film especially since director Minter certainly doesn’t give the audience anything on a plate or spell things out, though its final scene is aimed entirely at Mexico’s propensity for social anarchy and that history doesn’t necessarily mean progress. But then again… maybe it isn’t.

“We are the Flesh” is challenging, daring, provocative, disgusting yet it is superbly crafted and always visually compelling. There is a gorgeously photographed sex scene that resembles a Henri Matisse painting brought to life and shot in infrared, so that the heat signatures of two people literally radiate from the screen. It’s one of the most beautiful images you’ll see all year. But then you remember that you are watching a brother and sister having sex.

Minter brings us a debasingly depraved, idiotically incestuous fever dream of a movie that has no real story points or plot turns to speak of. Some have written of the visual splendor of the movie as truly artistic, while other have irately walked out on it because of its graphic carnality. It is certainly meant to poke, prod, provoke and shock as it tries to explore and exploit the last real sexual taboos to be depicted onscreen. Whatever catharsis we’re supposed to feel never comes across. While it seems contrived and it is pseudo-pornographic. Have I contradicted myself several times in this review? You bet I have and if you can make it all the way through the film, you will do the same.

---

BLU-RAY Special Features and Disc Specs:
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation 
* 5.1 surround and uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio options 
* Optional English subtitles 
* A new video essay by critic Virginie Sélavy 
* New interviews with director Emiliano Rocha Minter and cast members Noé Hernández, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel 
* Two short films by Emiliano Rocha Minter; Dentro and Videohome 
* Theatrical trailer 
* Stills gallery 
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork

DVD Special Features and Disc Specs:
* High Definition digital transfer 
* 5.1 surround and stereo 2.0 audio options 
* Optional English subtitles 
* A new video essay by critic Virginie Sélavy 
* New interviews with director Emiliano Rocha Minter and cast members Noé Hernández, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel 
* Two short films by Emiliano Rocha Minter; Dentro and Videohome 
* Theatrical trailer 
* Stills gallery 
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Anton Bitel, and a note from the producer on the film.