The Precocious and Brief Life of Sabina Rivas (Luis Mandoki, 2012): Mexico

Reviewed by Jillian P. Halverstadt. Viewed at the Metro 4 Theatre, Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

As someone who has never been to Mexico, and knows of it only for its legendary spring break reputation and being home to the relentless drug cartel, I came into the film  expecting to see something that would give me a fresh view on the country. Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Based on the novel by Rafael Ramirez Heredia and adapted into a screenplay by Diana Cardozo, this film was everything but brief.

This is the story about a very young Honduran girl who has big dreams of moving to America and becoming a famous singer.  Sabina, played by Greisy Mena, uses her voice to make her the ‘pearl’ of the Tijuanita which is just a stripclub/brothel full of underage girls that are basically owned by a woman named Dona Lita (Angelina Palaez).  The film consists of Sabinas many attempts at getting out of the Tijuanita and away from her ex-boyfriend Jovany (Fernando Moreno).  Jovany is shown at the beginning of the film being circled and gruesomely beat up as his initiation into the gang known as la Mara Salvatrucha and keeps reappearing in the story as an antagonist that, in Sabina’s opinion, is trying to keep her from living a better life.  It was a very sad story as there didn’t seem to be any adults in Sabina’s life that wasn’t there to manipulate or use her.  The film carries themes of the corruptions in the Mexican-American boarder control, prostitution, and the greed that takes over so many people in this world to where children become insignificant.

I thought that the plot was very intense but at times it began to get repetitive and needed better editing choices when it came to those insignificant scenes. The lighting during most of the scenes was dark with shadows and the costumes were dirty along with the dull color palettes which made for that rough, impoverished setting.  Being a young woman myself, this was a very difficult film to sit through.  The repeated rape scenes were literally painful for me to watch. I would find myself gripping my pen and bending my book of notes, almost twisting in my seat with discomfort.  This leads me to wonder if the men who view it feel the same or if they are able to focus on the content with less of a bias?  I can only conclude that this proves one thing to me and that is that the acting and form of the plot was realistic; especially in those particular scenes.

This is not the kind of film for the weak or ultra sensitive.  Nor is it a movie that inspires or encourages people.  If Mandoki’s goal was to direct a raw film that captures the pain and suffering of life across the American-Mexican boarders, then he nailed  it.  It still might be too rough for a lot of audiences.