Punto Y Raya Elia Schneider Venezuela 2004
After Gluesniffer, the Venezuelan director Elia Schneider strikes again with another polemical film, Punto Y Raya, attacking dogmatic ideologies in all its institutionalised forms through the two characters of Pedro and Cheito who, despite their initial antagonism, are forced to open their eyes to the innate and universal meaning of humanism by their unsympathetic surroundings. Borrowing its cynical, unemotional, spirit from its military background, the film, winner of the Latin feature film Critics Award at this 33rd Gramado Festival, illustrates the inherent precariousness of fixed moral principles and beliefs and suggests instead a more empirical approach to life and its obstacles.
Set on the border between Columbia and Venezuela, the narrative starts on the basic opposition of two men. Pedro Peinado (Edgar Ramirez) on the one hand portrays a stereotypical example of goodness: stemming from a small village in the midst of the Columbian countryside and guided by his faith in God, he decides to enrol in the army in order to defend his country from narco-traffickers and jungle guerrieros. On the other hand, Cheito Da Silva (Roque Valero, voted Best Actor), a posy pricky petty thief from the capital’s suburbs, is forced to join the army after he was caught dealing drugs for his lousy posse. Both positioned at Rio Moron on the border, the two antithetical protagonists are brought together in the midst of the jungle through sheer coincidence when Cheito’s deserting path happens to cross Pedro’s as he escapes from a guerriero ambush.
From this point, the film opens into an amusing game of cat and mouse. First made prisoner by Pedro, Cheito slowly manages to take over his pretextual nemesis thanks to his natural sense of opportunism and bribery. This episode in the jungle not only acts as a stepping stone for the protagonists but also serves to depict the chaotic situation that characterises this now renowned no man’s land. Stranded in a marijuana field and surrounded by narco-traffickers, Pedro and Cheito are then made prisoner by a group of guerriero who, as they prepare to execute the two hostages, get blown out by a helicopter from the CIA. The circumstantial pressure exerted by a political hierarchy reaching far beyond the protagonists’ mere antagonism, inevitably conduces Pedro and Cheito to redefine their relationship. Forced to unite their strengths and resources in the face of adversity, the two characters are made to accept one another and the symbol of a shared pair of shoes is used to illustrate the two men’s interdependency. Echoing the 2001 Yugoslavian film No Man’s Land which dealt with the comically difficult meeting between a Bosnian and a Serbian during the war, the first sequence of the film portrays how survival imperatives often reveal the sheer absurdity and trivialness of concepts such as nationality, religion or ethics.
Set in the more civilised environments of the protagonists’ respective homes, the second part of the film depicts the consolidation of Pedro and Cheito’s friendship. Turned into national heroes for their exemplary braveness and solidarity, the two men are invited to strengthen their bond by visiting each other’s homes and relatives. As one might expect, their respective visits turn into an embrace as Pedro, despite Cheito’s obsessive possessiveness, falls in love with his forbidden sister, whilst Cheito surreptitiously intrudes into Pedro’s girlfriend’s room to steal her virginity away. Pedro soon discovers Cheito’s selfish cheating and, in his rage, confesses his own misdeed so that both with a touch of un-admitted joy have to face their new ties of kinship. Through every single character, this second sequence depicts with an appropriate tone of playful sarcasm how instinctive impulses and animalistic tendencies always predominate over the higher moral ambitions of human nature.
The concluding part of the film, which shows the inevitable confrontation of the two protagonists and their resulting death, acts as a final blow of cooling pessimism. The low-budget, rudimentary, filming somewhat strengthens the despondent message carried by the images, by presenting a painfully sharp picture of morbid destruction and desolation. Ultimately, this last scene bears the fatalistic undertones of a self-fulfilling prophecy and puts forward a cynical view of humanity and its superficial beliefs. The title suddenly appears in all its meaningfulness at this point by reminding us that communication, like human relationships, can be simplified to simple "dots and dashes" and that artificial concepts such as religion, nationality or ethnicity become irrelevant when life comes down to survival. Punto y Raya is a poignant film whose invitation to reassess our priorities and values seems all the more relevant in this age of acute consumerism and rhetorical fanaticism.
