light and stone Shame was filmed by students at the Mexican Film Institute. At the same time, there is no hint of apprenticeship and pen test. Absolute consistency of all components of the narrative plus the strongest energy charge. A movie of our anxiety. And anxiety, both social and existential. The power of crime, poverty, the lack of opportunity to get out of the vicious circle of poor areas, where prostitution, drugs, corruption of the authorities and the police, hopelessness triumph not because of the moral corruption of the locals, but because it has always been so. It's customary. That's what happened. Salgado shot this life without pink, but without black glasses. His optics are a sober and hard look at this order of things, which has become habitual but cannot be considered normal. At the same time, social criticism in the picture is not the main component. Again, the modern story is based on a biblical parable. Student Pedro kills his friend and baseball teammate Lucio. Kills on orders. He kills to save himself. They, who have escaped from school to see a baseball game in the capital, are pulled from a night bus by outright bandits who choose their victims among the passengers. Girls are for sexual pleasure. Guys are for fighting without rules and to death. Pedro ran, survived. What about the basic instincts of self-preservation? Is it possible to live among those who are looking for their son and brother, not knowing that the search is in vain, and the murderer lives in the house opposite? What to do when you are firmly convinced that the police will not protect, because it is the chief policeman of the city who protects scumbags? When a mother has long been tired of everything and finds solace in a “foolish” and sells herself to a supplier for her? When the image of a murdered friend is haunted by nightmares, it is seen in the window, on the street, in the corner of his own room. The deceased, or missing, is believed to have a different family. Dad, mom, sister. Small farm: cows, milk, cheese. The chick is about to die, we need to strengthen the roof of the barn. We need to nail, hold, fix. As in every family, there are disputes, misunderstandings, omissions, but still this is not Pedro’s mother, who is just now passing the point of no return by slipping into the abyss of death. In fact, Pedro replaces Lucio in the family. The paradox is that the parents hope that the son will return, and the self-styled son knows exactly where his body is buried. For more than an hour and a half, the picture confidently keeps a note of exorbitant emotional tension, inheriting the parables about Cain and Abel, about the prodigal son. At the same time, without taking a moment off the soil of a particular Mexican society. In the geographically exactly designated town of San Bernardo – translated into Russian “Holy strong bear”. And the names of teenagers are iconic - Pedro - rock, stone. Lucio is the light. The lights are dead. The solid impersonates the light. The shame of the lies that a person carries and feels every second of being. The way to repentance is as an opportunity to throw off an unbearable weight from the soul. That's the same stone that's stuck with your name. The stone's attempt to replace light. An attempt by the fallen to rise through the truth. And thorns along the way. It is in the Gospel that the Lord will understand and support. Not necessarily in life. Powerful movie!