Our Lady of the Assassins (2000)

You won't be disappointed!

Very disappointed :(

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

through cinema we all find out that movies have as many motives and meanings as the different tastes everyone has. left alone the fact that this movie was done on a low budget i realized that the movie is not about the violence that plagued the city (medellin)in the 80's and early 90's. after living in the streets of medellin myself through all my childhood, i recognized that the movie was about the main character (fernando) realizing that he has been unhappy for all his life and apparently until it ends, he'll always be. he comes back 30 years later to his birthplace as a "famous writer" being politics his main specialty. just to find out out that his town has changed for worse. he's travelled all over the world and lived in the big cities abroad just to come back to put up with the ignorance and lowlife lifestyle of everyone around him. which is why he attracts all the bad situations that happen in this film. he tries to find love wherever he can find it, and he does so in alexis and then again with wilmar who kills alexis in revenge for having killed his brother and so many other gang members. after seeing all the common-everyday violence he finds useless to kill wilmar in revenge for killing alexis,and instead he emotionally attaches himself to wilmar. just to loose him as easy as he found him. this movie is about the sadness in being unhappy all your life. and the value of it.

This movie takes your heart and soul. This movie freezes your heart and wants you to cry, smile and cry again all at the same time, and above all almost screams at you about the horror of life in Medellin at the time which it presents. This film moved me to the core. Love story which might offend some people is gorgeous and true. An older gay guy falls in love with 18 years old street gay boy who desperately seeks love and security which he did not have all his young life. He can't step away from the habit which became his second nature, killing the guys like himself, young and lonely. In the movie killing becomes almost as understandable as breathing or eating and becomes part of love of the older guy to the beautiful Alexis. To my astonishment, all the killings all of the sudden became acceptable to spectators. I love this movie. I love the story. I love the plot of true feelings of the older guy toward his young lover and vice versa. Human spirit which emanates from this film is mesmerizing and almost blinding and the love is heartbreaking and beautiful.

Barbet Schroeder demonstrates brilliantly in Our Lady of the Assassins (2000) that he still has a genius for directing art-house masterpieces. His first foreign-film in over ten years, is at turns violent, comical and touching. Fernando (played by German Jaramillo) is a writer who's been living abroad for many years and he has come back to his crime-ridden birthplace, Medellin, to kill himself. His goals in life having been completed, he is ready for death. Or is he? At a party his first week in town, Fernando meets Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros), a 15 year old siccario, or street assassin, who works for Pablo Escobar. Beautiful and carefree, Alexis lives by the gun and carries his weapon everywhere, even into church, always on the look out for enemies and men who want to kill him. Much of the movie, lavishly shot with a hand-held digital camera, focuses on the love affair of Fernando with Alexis, he buys the kid anything he wants and lets him live in his luxury apartment (strangely empty, Fernando tells him that he has all he needs, a good view and plenty of good books) and they wander Medellin, comically in search of a taxi driver who will play good music instead of poppy garbage. Along the way of their savage journey, Alexis kills plenty of people, some for mouthing off, a neighbor for playing drums way too loudly at night and even a machete-wielding cabby who is offended that Fernando calls his music garbage. It is a strange kind of love between the two, but it is a love that reaffirms Fernando's passion for life, even when, as seemed fated to happen, Alexis finally gets killed. The gunfight scenes are amazing, the camera work, lighting and acting all give the impression to the viewer that we are there, witnessing the violence that Medellin's inhabitants have become completely inured to. The sex scenes are never distasteful but instead are somehow touching. The actors portray Fernando's cynicism with the violent world around him and Alexis' passion for life, despite his accepting that he can only survive by killing for both pleasure and money, masterfully. Another masterpiece by Barbet Schroeder, easily on a par with his earlier works such as Barfly and Maitresse. Part surreal odyssey, part machine-gun symphony, part allegory, this film speaks volumes on many different subjects.

Medellin is a dangerous city in more ways than one is lead to believe. At the time of the action, Pablo Escobar's empire has been dismantled and his loyal soldiers are scattered all around the city engaging in a game of death, revenge and petty vendettas. There is no reverence for life in a place that has seen violence on a daily basis and where children have access to guns for protection in order to survive in that environment.Barbet Schroeder, the German director, expands on Fernando Vallejo's novel, which the author adapted for the screen, resulting in a highly violent and bloody film that is disturbing, as well as true.Fernando, the older gay man who comes back to his native city of Medellin, quickly finds a boy to satisfy his needs. Alexis, the young man, is seen at first at the all-male brothel where he is offered by the pimp to Fernando. Alexis turns out to be something the older man didn't expect. This is a boy that is savvy in the ways of how to survive in the city, who clearly takes an interest in the older, and richer Fernando.Alexis is a marked man and it's only a matter of time; his days are numbered because there are other youths behind him that will do whatever in their power to eliminate him. Fernando can't believe what his city has become, but he has no desire to go away again. When Alexis is killed, Fernando mourns his death until Wilmar, another young gay man appears in his orbit. Little prepares Fernando to realize who Wilmar is really.Fernando's comments on the situation in his city, as well as in the Colombian reality, are the basic themes of the film. While one side of him cries for that old place he knew as a child, he welcomes this new metropolis full of danger and people that attracts and repulses him at the same time.German Jaramillo appears to be the alter ego for the writer, Fernando Vallejo, whose story seems to resemble that of the Fernando in the novel and in the film. Mr. Jaramillo's take on Fernando keeps him away from the confrontations between his young lovers and what he thinks is right. He never passes judgment on what the young people are doing, yet he is instrumental for providing the bullets that Alexis needs to defend himself. The other two young actors, Anderson Ballesteros and Juan Diego Restrepo, play Alexis and Wilmar respectively.Barbet Schroeder has directed the film with all its realism showing us a society in which all hope seems to have abandoned the citizens of the city.