QUAND PASSE LE TRAIN

“Food! Food!” In La Patrona, in the Mexican State of Veracruz, Bernarda and her companions rush outside as soon as they hear the first whistles of the still distant train. Their solidarity – holding out bags of food to migrants who are illegally making their way to the American border by train – is filmed in all its breathless speed, defying the laws of acceleration and gravity. In counterpoint, a tasty sequence that shows Bernarda in her grocery store scrupulously doing her accounts fully conveys the political side of this gesture offered to complete strangers who will never have the chance to thank her… although another telephone sequence seems to suggest that these gifts have some astonishing outcomes. In its construction, the film constantly loops back to the present moment of the gesture, thus avoiding the pitfall of becoming a lesson in humanism: with the racing wheelbarrows full of supplies and the bottles hurled and caught in mid-air, the furtive moment of distribution is like a shot of pure adrenaline, creating an excitement that is worthy of the best action films. (Charlotte Garson)