"Concursante" is the most brilliant, thought-provoking and intelligent movie I've seen this year, and I recommend it to any movie-watcher who has an open mind to new story-telling ways in cinema and to an out of the ordinary and ferociously critical content. It is basically an intellectual bomb aimed at the modern economy system based on "fictitious money" and on bank credits, mortgages and loans that ends up devouring the individual, his properties, his dignity and, eventually, his life.
The movie follows Martín Circo (not by chance, it means "circus" in Spanish, since that is exactly what we're about to watch), an Economy teacher who doesn't sidestep the traditional scholarship when he lectures his students: according to him, we live in "the best world possible". One day, he wins material goods worth 6 million euros on a television contest -he and his girlfriend are now filthy rich. But Circo is about to find out that being a millionaire is very expensive, and that he has now become a victim of the bank system. The movie starts a la "Sunset Blvd.", with Circo witnessing his own death scene (no spoilers therefore), and telling us his story of rise and fall. But, even though we know -or we think we know- how the story goes, there is much more to it than the story of an ordinary man versus the bank. In the wake of his gradual fall, he (and the viewers) will meet several picturesque characters, with the outlandish and rebellious economy expert Edmundo Figueroa clearly standing out and forming a memorable anti-heroic pair with Circo.
There are many reasons why it is advisable to watch "Concursante". It will tell you, or remind you of a few uncomfortable truths that we live with every day, but which we accept for the sake of being able to buy the newest cell phone model -and yet it will do so in a non-lecturing way. It is brimming with cynicism, irony, and some degree of accepted fatalism as to the world we live in -this could as well have been a rampant tragedy, but the director has wisely chosen to make it a surreal comedy of sorts, despite its heavy critical content.
The movie follows Martín Circo (not by chance, it means "circus" in Spanish, since that is exactly what we're about to watch), an Economy teacher who doesn't sidestep the traditional scholarship when he lectures his students: according to him, we live in "the best world possible". One day, he wins material goods worth 6 million euros on a television contest -he and his girlfriend are now filthy rich. But Circo is about to find out that being a millionaire is very expensive, and that he has now become a victim of the bank system. The movie starts a la "Sunset Blvd.", with Circo witnessing his own death scene (no spoilers therefore), and telling us his story of rise and fall. But, even though we know -or we think we know- how the story goes, there is much more to it than the story of an ordinary man versus the bank. In the wake of his gradual fall, he (and the viewers) will meet several picturesque characters, with the outlandish and rebellious economy expert Edmundo Figueroa clearly standing out and forming a memorable anti-heroic pair with Circo.
There are many reasons why it is advisable to watch "Concursante". It will tell you, or remind you of a few uncomfortable truths that we live with every day, but which we accept for the sake of being able to buy the newest cell phone model -and yet it will do so in a non-lecturing way. It is brimming with cynicism, irony, and some degree of accepted fatalism as to the world we live in -this could as well have been a rampant tragedy, but the director has wisely chosen to make it a surreal comedy of sorts, despite its heavy critical content.