After finishing their third feature film, Sin Compasión, Peruvian director Francisco Lombardi and screenwriter Augusto Cabada asked themselves the following question: 'How can a 'normal' person become a conscious criminal?'. And from this question one apparently about the origin of crime rises another less subtle question, less contrived: Weren't there always criminals? For it is not a question of becoming, they soon learned. Crime has always been around. It's elementary, my dear. Here, there, in each and every one of us.
So, to set the record straight, this dynamic duo supped the waters of the past, dove into the well of time and emerged (valiantly so) with a whopper of a fact. In Northern Peru, during the first centuries after Christ, there existed a civilisation called the Moches, a pre-Incan tribe, that decapitated their victims and carefully dissected them, tearing out their eyes and insides, in homage to their deity: the Cutthroat God.
And such is the history that lets loose the plot years later in Palle (Peru, right around now). This small town, which had once been the hub of Moche culture, finds itself afflicted with a series of murders. Case in point: young men are found or rather, the heads of young men are found, their sockets empty, their eyes pulled out.
But Bajo la piel is not a whodunnit piece. Instead, it tells the story of one man, Percy Corso (Jose Luis Ruiz Barahona), a shy and highly insecure policeman who detests violence, in his seeming transformation from cop to killer to killer-cop.
While Percy searches for the culprit of these heinous crimes, he meets María (Ana Risueno), a young, attractive Spanish doctor with whom he falls in love, and Catalino Pinto (Giafranco Brero), an anthropology professor who specialises in the Moches and their death-centred craft. While the latter leads Percy to question his 'civilised', non-violent self, the former gives him the desire-driven reason to unleash his killer instincts.
All in all, Lombardi and Cabada have fashioned a wistful film about passion, instinct and tradition. There are some great scenes thanks to the near brilliant performances by Diego Berti as Gino, Maria's one night stand, and Jorge Rodriguez Paz as Fausto, Gino's father and the town mayor.
To answer their original question, Lombardi and Cabada have taken refuge in an overly innocent ending Percy on a hammock, smiling dreamy-eyed and claiming that his present happiness is due to the murders he committed out of love. This ending gets under our skin. And perhaps that's its point: to leave us with one further question If crime brings bliss to those who execute it, then why please tell doesn't it happen more often? Kris Rendon
Prod co: Tornasol Films/Inca Films/Pandora Films
Prod: Gerardo Herrero/Javier Lopez Blanco en asociacion con Karl Baumgartner/ Francisco J Lombardi
Dir: Francisco J Lombardi
Guion (Scr): Augusto Cabada
Foto (Ph): Teo Delgado
Mont (Ed): Fernando Pardo
Ints (Cast): Ana Risueno, Jose Luis Ruiz Barahona, Diego Bertie, Gianfranco Brero, Jorge Rodriguez Paz
Ventas (Int'l sales):
Duracion (Running time): 110 mins
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