10/14: Tigers Are Not Afraid

Almost caught up. Yesterday's film:

10/14: For today's film we go down to old Mexico for the absolutely stellar Tigers Are Not Afraid. Let me just start by saying... wow. What a film. Now, I know. My reviews are usually full of snark, and for that I apologize. Well, honestly, I don't really care. Damn it, I did it again. Anywho, this review, though? This movie is too damn well made for snark.

We all know fairytales. Bedtime stories. Whether your parents read them to you when you were a kid or you read them to yourself, we all have an inherent knowledge of bedtime stories. They all seem to exist in a fantastical realm of yore, where monsters lurk, heroes rise up to face them, and there's always a lesson to be learned. The thing about fairytales though is that their separation from our modern world often keeps them at arms length. They exist in fantasy and thus are far removed from reality. 

Directors like Guillermo del Toro have explored the idea of modern day fantasies, fairytales that exist in our modern times. Tigers Are Not Afraid has del Toro's influence all over it but still manages to pave its own fairytale path. Set in modern day Mexico, Tigers Are Not Afraid follows a band of orphaned youth who find themselves wrapped up in real life horrors: the Mexican drug cartels. Each youth has had their family taken from them or killed by the cartels and it is this commonality that binds them. After a cell phone belonging to a top cartel member comes into their possession they find themselves hunted by real monsters.

This is where Tigers Are Not Afraid truly shines: taking modern day elements and weaving them into a modern day fairytale. Monsters here are real, the cartel, and the heroes are lost and afraid children who are thrust into their roles by the awful world they are unfortunate enough to live in. The director, Issa Lopez (so excited to see what else she does), takes these elements and weaves in fairytale elements like wishes, dragons, voices of the dead beyond the grave, and more. The question is always being asked, are all these fantastic elements real or are they part of these children dealing with immense trauma? Is the fairytale their way to escape?

Ultimately that's what this movie is about, all fantastical elements aside: children healing from deep trauma. What these children have seen and experienced at the hands of the drug cartels is real. It's so real in fact that it's something that thousands of real children are experiencing. This movie is so immensely important in our modern age; as the debate over border security rages, as violence between the cartels rages just over that border, it is so easy to forget the humanity that exists behind it all. There are real children out there that are experiencing real suffering. They are faceless, forgotten; Tigers Are Not Afraid gives them a face, a story, and perhaps it is through a fantasy that we are better able to stomach their suffering. Just like the children in Tigers Are Not Afraid need the fantasy to cope, perhaps we need it, too. 

The more I think about it, the more I think that Tigers Are Not Afraid is a monumental film. Sometimes the fantasy can be a bit heavy handed, but ultimately it all serves telling an important story. There are stories that need to be told; Tigers Are Not Afraid is certainly one. There are people, children in this case, that need a face; Tigers Are Not Afraid shows us that face uncompromisingly. Who says horror can't be deep?

10/10