A film starting with the four year old son sitting in the back seat of car whilst his Mexican cartel hitman father takes out a rival cartel member would suggest that Sujo is going to be a brutal vengeance type thriller along the lines of Sicario or its sequel Soldado. The film, split into four chapters, follows the boy Sujo now orphaned and taken into the care of his aunt after his father himself gets bumped off. His father having been No 8 in the cartel was victim of a revenge killing and gang lore means that Sujo must be killed too lest he grows up and follows a path of revenge against the cartel that killed his father.
It’s his Aunt Nemesia who hides him and his fathers car in her isolated cabin in the dessert to grow up alongside her own two boys Jai & Jeremy. As a teenager it’s not long before the ways of Sujo’s father are visited upon him too and with Jai & Jeremy dragged into being drug mules Nemesia doesn’t want him following the same life and puts him on a bus to Mexico City where he earns a living at a fruit and veg distribution centre but becomes fascinated with education classes and his potential is recognised by schoolteacher Susan there.
A combination of lyricism, control of your own destiny and an underlying message of betterment through education is at the heart of Sujo with the chapters named after characters who represent people in his life that could and will change his path. It’s not the violent rampage of revenge that is usual with this type of film and culminates in a decision that sees him drawn between family and his future that leaves you hanging for an answer and wanting to know more about whether he will maintain his journey into a better future.
Written and directed by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez there are a number of very good scenes here starting with that opening scene of Sujo on the backseat as his father carries out a hit, to Sujo hidden under a table when a rival Sicario comes to kill him to the end dilemma he is drawn into there’s plenty to get the audience on his side .
Sujo is submitted as Mexico’s Best Film in a foreign language Oscar nomination and is a strong contender to go home with the Oscar.
related feature : Director Gareth Evans explains how ‘The Raid 2’ prison fight was done….
related feature : ‘Sicario 2 : Soldado’ – reviewed here
Here’s the Sujo trailer…..
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