Rumble of the Stones ( Alejandro Bellame Palacios, 2011): Venezuela

Reviewed by Jose De Anda. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2012.

Rumble of the Stones is a drama film that follows the lives of a family led by the family’s mother. The film takes place in a poverty ridden neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela where Delia, the mother of two children, works hard at her chicken factory job and then on her home business of selling and delivering food to maintain her two sons.

While attempting to rear her two children she faces many challenges. First her older son appears to be involved with some gangsters which is further revealed as the movie goes on. Second crime is so rampant and abundant in the poor neighborhood were they live that gunfights at night between gangs seem commonplace. Delia struggles to raise money so that she can buy a home in a better neighborhood. Her younger son seems interested in school and appears to be headed in the right direction but the potential bad influence of his older brother looms.

This film is shot with minimal editing and lots of hand held camera. The shots tend to go long periods before cuts adding to the realistic feel. Most of the shots are eye level, also realistic and the lighting used is predominantly natural available lighting which is also a staple of realistic film style. The action scenes use the hand held camera too but here you can notice the steady cam function is not used to add some camera shake. This is very good because I think it’s appropriate to add some camera shake when an action scene takes place. It’s an unstable moment so the camera is unstable as well. Perfect example of composition matching theme, a defining characteristic of good film making.

The strongest scene in the movie is when Delia finds a gun hidden in her older sons room. When she finds the gun the camera follows her outside the home and towards the basketball court where her older son is hanging out with some hoodlums. The first thing I noticed is the camera panning from right to left quickly and violently. The director did this to cause uneasy and awkward feeling from the viewer, kind of like Delia felt. I also noticed the camera shake was way more noticeable and this was very good. The acting in this scene was superb, the best in the film. You could tell that the actress was just leaving it all on the screen. Again, this was the strongest scene in the film and also one central to the story because her throwing the gun over the cliff gets her older son in a lot of trouble as the gun was not his.

After this scene the movie takes a twist. Now the older son leaves the house and moves in with a girlfriend. Delia is very upset about this but continues to grind through her two jobs to make money to someday move out of the ghetto. She continues to steer her younger son in the right direction but the part of town they live in is so dangerous that her younger son and his friend find themselves caught in the middle of a gangster gunfight and unfortunately the younger boy’s best friend is struck by a fatal bullet. This was very sad but I like how the director included this in his film because it’s the harsh reality of crime ridden Latin America and one that millions of people are forced to endure.

The story continues to get harsher as Delia’s older son is now working at the bank his girlfriend works at as a runner. He’s also getting involved in robberies to attempt to pay back the gangster who owned the gun his mother threw out who has threatened him continuously.

Meanwhile his mother is about to make a large down payment on a new home in a better neighborhood. Her coworker, neighbor and friend’s lover is said to be connected to influential people deciding who gets what house and claims to be getting them to be first in line. Here is where I find the main (almost only) flaw in this film. I have a hard time believing that anyone would just hand over there life’s saving to a man who said “The first thing is to have the money!” and who is also only known by his nickname “Fauna” and furthermore treats his girlfriend (Delia’s friend) like crap (seen in the lunch scene). I think there are some naive people but not that naive. I knew she was going to get taken advantage of early in the movie.

On to more positive notes I like how the director gave symbolic value to the rocks that the younger boy likes to collect and to rocks in general in the film. The rock was symbolic to the tenacity of the family and their willingness to endure duress. I think this was one of the stronger points in the film.

In conclusion this realistic film is a great view. I liked the choice of shots, camera shake, panning and symbolism. A good story to watch with the exception of the aforementioned flaw.