Los Bastardos

This nihilist depiction of Fausto (Sosa) and Jesús (Rodriguez), illegal Mexican labourers who live and work in California, is a severe, realist film that gets its message across by replicating in the audience the tedium of work and the shock of sudden violence that severe inequality can inspire.

A long opening shot of the pair ambling along an empty storm drain in Los Angeles sets the mood for a silent, observational style that favours a settled, fly-on-the-wall approach to drama, whether capturing the monotony of work or the latent dread that marks the later stages of the film when Fausto and Jesús break into a woman’s house in exchange for cash. Hardly a pleasurable watch, but Los Bastardos justifies its shock tactics by placing the violence of its protagonists squarely in the context of desperately unequal work relations.