La Zona Review

Welcome to 'The Zone', an idyllic community where manicured suburban lawns line litter-free streets and the only thing that disturbs the narcoleptic calm is the barely-audible swiveling of a dozen video surveillance cameras. Slum dwellings tumble down the surrounding hills but inside La Zona the residents are kept insulated from the poor by a perimeter security wall and private guards. It's a dystopian future that's already here, a snapshot of contemporary Mexico where the affluent and the poor lead segregated lives.

Segregated until one night when a thunderstorm blacks out the power and a freak accident leaves La Zona defenseless and exposed. A gang of opportunist thieves break into a house and kill the owner. The incursion is swiftly dealt with by the residents who mete out lethal force and summary justice in equal measure.

One criminal Miguel (Chávez) escapes and is trapped inside the perimeter as the residents mount a vigilante taskforce to find him. He's discovered by Alejandro (Tovar), a teen with a conscience that won't let him throw this pobre to the wolves. Alejandro's principles put him in conflict with his father Daniel (Giménez Cacho), leader of the vigilantes. Is Alejandro taking a stand against corruption or is he betraying his family and the community itself?

Answers don't come easily in Rodrigo Plá's debut feature, a moral maze which taps into universal middle-class anxieties while painting a chilling picture of the easy slide into mob rule and group psychosis. In the aftermath of the raid, the community faces tough issues. Should they let the police inside the compound? Or cover up the murders themselves?