Sometimes you have no choice - both in life and in the cinema. You see and hear what is happening on the screen, you are moved and horrified at the same time, but you still can't escape the maelstrom that is created by the images and voices. Like in the scaled down and stylised documentary "La libertad del diablo", where both victims and perpetrators describe what a massive effect the violence related to the never-ending war on drugs has on the lives of Mexican people: among them two girls, who remember how their mother was shot in front of their eyes. Or the young man, who already committed his first murder as a child, and therefore knows there is no turning back. What unites them are the skin-coloured masks that conceal their identities. We quickly understand from the Mexican director that in front of his camera, they are all the same – there is no judgement, there is no comment.
Everardo González (*1971), who is today considered one of the most important Latin American filmmakers, always focuses on finding the countless faces of horror of his native Mexico in his films. With "La libertad del diablo", he has managed to create a profoundly human portrait of terror.
