Most gangster movies, though they involve people doing terrible things like selling drugs and murdering competitors, are built on a Judeo-Christian ethic-for instance, the scene in "The Godfather" where Michael Corleone's thugs kill off his enemies while he attends his nephew's baptism and becomes, in two senses of the word, the godfather.
The main characters in these kind of movies tell themselves that they have good reasons for their evil actions-they are taking care of their family, for instance. Biblical values of trust and respect are important, greed and gluttony are bad, and family bonds are sacred. Their downfall almost always is the result of the slippery slope they've descended; once there's blood on their hands, once they've tasted the forbidden fruit, a tragic cycle has begun from which there is rarely any escape.
"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in," Michael says in despair, near the end of his life. Crime might pay, but it always demands to be paid back, with interest.
"Birds of Passage," made by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, and set among the Wayuu people of Colombia, is a gangster film that replaces that Judeo-Christian ethic with a traditional indigenous ethic that is basically the same. The Wayuu value many of the same things; trust, family, respect, honesty-but they are expressed in different ways, and that's a really interesting angle to take on pretty familiar cinematic territory. Or it could be.
The main protagonist, Raphayet (Jose Acosta), enters into the lucrative marijuana trade initially because he needs a dowry in order to marry Zaida (Natalia Reyes). Her mother (Carmiña Martinez) is the family matriarch, and while she reluctantly agrees to the marriage and the business that it entails, she is also the voice of warning. Birds and insects are omens and portents of things that are out of harmony in the community, related to the greed or impunity of her son-in-law's drug-dealing friends. She more or less plays the role played by a priest in Italian-Catholic versions of this story.
Then again, maybe "Birds of Passage" borrows too much and relies too heavily on "The Godfather." Despite its interesting premise, this film never takes off and become something of its own. The story beats feel too familiar; first, there's an unreliable business partner who must be dealt with, then a son who's supposed to inherit everything but takes it all for granted and acts in arrogant and headstrong ways that bring ruin to the family dynasty.
It's not so much a problem that we've seen all this before as it is that the whole movie just seems to be going through the motions, mimicking a better-told, richer story. At times, it feels as if a tiny theater company in Colombia had decided to stage a reproduction "The Godfather. "
The main problem is that the directors don't seem very interested in what they're doing, almost as if they don't really like gangster films in the first place. The acting is stiff, the cinematography is either perfunctory or puzzling, and the set design is head-scratchingly weird (when the families make enough money to move out of their traditional huts, they move into startlingly clean, white stucco houses that don't appear as if anyone could actually live in them-they look like some kind of dwelling in the afterlife.)
The bones of a good movie are here, and I think it's actually a pretty good script, but everything feels so perfunctory. Shoot the scene and get on with it. Lifeless, emotionless, almost characterless. I really wish I could watch this same material directed by someone emotionally invested in it.
Directors: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra
Starring: Carmiña Marting, Natalia Reyes, José Acosta
Running time: 125 minutes
Will Krishchke works with InterVarsity in Durango, Colorado, where his wife directs Native Ministries for InterVarsity.
