Río Escondido

Interesting primarily for Gabriel Figueroa's predictably ravishing b/w camerawork, but also for the way it melds typically overheated Mexican melodrama with political propaganda, inflecting both with distinctly religious overtones. Félix is the virginal (!) but idealistic teacher sent by the country's new, godlike president to a remote rural hellhole terrorised by a sadistic, woman-hating, Indian-hating local tyrant. Very much a didactic nationalistic parable highlighting the need for self-sacrifice in the fight against corruption, it's mostly pretty clunky, especially in comparison with, say, Fernández's gorgeous Enamorada, but the exquisite images do make up for the pious solemnities.