The Other Conquest (La Otra Conquista)
Starring: Jose Carlos Rodriguez, Elpidia Carrillo, Inaki Aierra and introducing Damien Delgado as Topiltzin
Written, Directed & Edited by Salvador Carrasco

The Mexican film industry is very much in a growth spurt right now. With directors like Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth), Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams and Babel) and Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men), it is now an incredibly prolific hit machine and is gaining huge respect around the world for its quality of subject matter , cinematography and, of course, direction.

The Other Conquest is director Salvador Carrasco’s first feature and although it is a lush, wonderfully shot piece, there’s no real cohesion or logic to the story, but I’m getting ahead of things here…

The film begins in Mexico in 1521 after the marauding Spanish armies of Hernando Cortez have swept through what was then seen as the “New World,” killing, pillaging, conquering and “converting” the native Aztec people to Christianity.

The army, led the unbearably vicious Captain Cristobal (played with maniacal glee by Honorato Magaloni) stumble upon an Aztec human sacrifice and things go downhill rapidly from there, for both the Aztecs and Spanish conquerors.

Along for the ride is Friar Diego (Jose Carlos Rodriguez) and although he is horrified by the scene of sacrifice, he seems more repulsed by the reaction of the battle-hardened, travel weary troops, who just want to kill the natives, take their gold and get out of there.

The surviving Aztec is Topiltzin (Damien Delgado) and he is taken, summarily tortured by the gruesome Cristobal and re-introduced to his sister Tecuichpo/Dona Isabel (Elpidia Carrillo), who is now the lover of Hernando Cortez (Inaki Aierra), and his life is spared as long as he converts and forgets his previous life.

It’s an interesting first 45 minutes, but from here the film is bogged down in art house statements, confused plot-twists and incomprehensible dialogue. It’s almost as if Carrasco was thinking a little too much and wanted to do more with it when he really didn’t need to.

The potential for this movie was enormous. It obviously had a massive budget, beautiful scenery and an excellent cast, but Carrasco has managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. Indeed the only thing that saves the film is the relationship between Friar Diego and Topiltzin, who is now known as Tomas, which is potentially full of character and meaning, but is allowed to be forgotten somewhere along the line.

The Other Conquest is a confused movie. It desperately wants to make a statement about how we all need to get along, no matter whether we have religion or not, but it ends up saying nothing and conveying thoughts that are no heavier than a cornflake.

I wanted so desperately to love this movie, to be involved and invest in the characters, but all that happened was that I wept with joy when it ended.

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Technorati Tags: The Other Conquest, La Otra Conquista, Movie, DVD Review, Film Reviews, Bad Film, Damien Delgado, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Salvador Carrasco

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