Review of Satan (2006) by Pablo M — 28 Oct 2010

Inspired by a real event that took place in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, this film starts out by following the lives of three different characters. One is a priest who's having doubts about his faith, the other is an army veteran who gives private lessons of English, as he fought for the US army, and the third is a girl trying to make ends meet by working in a public marketplace in the city and who takes a chance by following two dubious males who promise her a way out of her dead-end job. At the beginning I kept wondering where was this film going, and what the relation between its three distinct characters was all about. But as you follow the film, you're taken through some paths that would've better been left alone.

This is an extremely well made film. The actors are really good, especially Mexican actor Damian Alcazar, who nails his part so perfectly, it took me a while to figure out that he wasn't Colombian at all. Damian Alcazar is one of the few actors I know who can actually play a part using only his face, as you can read every thought that passes through his mind, just by looking at him. What a performance! The film is extremely well shot and kudos also to the director, who though this is his first film, shoots in a classic way, that is to say, no shaky, hand-held camera movements and jerky cuts every three seconds. This is closer to Hitchcock than to Michael Bay, and thank god for that.

If you research on what this is base, is quite a story, again this movie is so well made you can bealive his low budget and that it almost didn´t get produce.

In my opinion this is the best Columbian movie in history and one of the greatest ever to come for any latin american country . . . .