Based on a sex scandal that sent waves throughout Chile in the early 2000s, the film looks at the meaning of victimhood and the impotence of black-and-white systems of justice.
In the opening minutes of “Blanquita,” an adolescent boy, the victim of a child sex ring prone to violent breakdowns, is deemed psychologically unfit to testify against his abusers, terminating the case.
Enter Blanca (Laura Lopéz), an 18-year-old single mother with a major chip on her shoulder. Living in a foster home for victims of sexual violence, Blanca is regularly surrounded by damaged, disadvantaged souls; her own life has been far from easy.
Encouraged by Manuel (an excellent Alejandro Goic), the aggrieved priest who runs the foster home, Blanca claims to have been a victim of sex trafficking and charges a senior politician of imprisonment and rape — a single strand in a larger conspiracy that traces back to the Pinochet dictatorship. As the case heats up, Blanca and Manuel are ordered to back down — sometimes aggressively, as mysterious cronies terrorize the duo with intimidation tactics. Facts emerge that poke holes in her story.
Based on a criminal case that sent waves throughout Chile in the early 2000s, “Blanquita” looks at the meaning of victimhood and the impotence of black-and-white systems of justice.
Unfolding like a David Fincheresque procedural and doused in gloomy grays and blues, the film, by the writer and director Fernando Guzzoni, may seem provocative to some in the context of #MeToo and its popular mantra to “believe women.”
That’s because Blanca, an unflappable figure who likes to party and slings profanities with machine-gun-like speed, doesn’t square with the stereotypical understanding of a victim. Her methods of righting wrongs aren’t traditional either.
In one scene, a female politician offering Blanca support discusses the case with Manuel, noting that he clearly loves his foster children. He snaps, “Here, love means housing, infrastructure, psychologists, teachers” — not the conceptual kind she’s referring to. Blanca, like Manuel, has had enough with the empty platitudes and promises of the most powerful; interested in results, not moral righteousness, she dares to play them at their own game.
Blanquita
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
