?14 Kilómetros? (2007)
Written and directed by Gerardo
Olivares
Running time: 95 mins

14 KILÓMETROS? is not your typical Spanish film. In fact, it is not really about Spain and the main characters are not Spanish but Africans.

But ?14 Kilómetros??the distance between North Africa and Spain?does answer the question: Why are illegal immigrants from different parts of the globe (in this film, from Mali and Niger) flocking to Spain?

The film zeroes in on two people who have realized that a better life outside Africa awaits them. Violeta (Aminata Kanta), a teenager from Mali, is forced to marry a man who has abused her before. Buba (Adoum Moussa) is a mechanic who, prodded by his brother Mukela (Illiassou Mahamadou Alzouma), decides to flee his poverty-stricken village to try his luck as a football player in Europe.

The brothers embark on a journey to Europe and meet Violeta along the way. The love angle of this immigrant/road movie is reinforced early on by the montage of scenes exploring Violeta?s life juxtaposed with those of Buba?s.

The film chronicles their difficult journey through the Ténéré desert and other places where corrupt police officers, petty thieves, fixers, cantankerous drivers, among a host of strange and sometimes amusing characters, make the journey even more difficult than it already is.

Incredible performances

The strength of the film lies in its conscious effort to avoid melodrama. Despite the predictable plot, the film manages to come up with moving scenes like the death of Mukela, the reunion of the lovers, and the final sequence in Spain.

The actors also do not resort to exaggerated gestures or histrionics, and the camerawork and musical score are not used to exploit emotionally charged scenes; very bare but effective score, no extreme close-ups and lingering shots of heavy moments.

Moussa and Kanta turn incredible and understated performances to enable the film to deliver its message about the darkness of the human soul as well as its capacity for greatness and heroism.

The most commendable aspect of the film is the cinematography (Alberto Moro and Gerardo Olivares). The camera takes us on a journey from the busy streets in Niger and Mali to quiet moments along the river, to the breathtaking shots of the desert. The panoramic shots of the Ténéré desert are so beautifully rendered that at certain points one forgets about the characters? arduous journey (and even the characters).

Aside from bringing to fore one of the conflicts in the film?wo/man vs nature?the exquisitely-photographed desert also functions as a metaphor for the dreary lives people have to endure and as a reminder of wo/man?s puny place in the universe. Nevertheless, the violent sands of the desert can also bring out the best in people: to forge friendships and to demonstrate acts of kindness.

Distances between humans

But the film is also clear about its point: Something else is more violent and darker than nature?and that is our ?heart of darkness.? All throughout, one sees what it is to be human and flawed: petty crimes, corruption, indifference to other people?s suffering, bureaucracy, and the trading of women as if they were commodities.

The film?s ending becomes necessary then?if only because it is hoped for, if only because the 14 kilómetros, or the distances that keep humans apart and apathetic, could never be overcome without acts of courage, of sympathy.

In the end, ?14 Kilómetros? is about a wo/man?s inexhaustible will to breach borders and become the person s/he wishes to become. It also underscores her/his capacity for kindness which, above all, is the source of her/his redemption in a seemingly dark and faithless world.

?14 Kilómetros? will be screened on Oct. 1, 7 p.m., at Greenbelt 3, Cinema 2.

(Ronald Baytan is a poet and critic. ?The Queen Sings the Blues,? published by Anvil, is his first poetry book.)