UNTAMED ROYALS/ PRINCIPES SALVAJES

Mexico, 2024, 95 minutes, Colour.

Juan Pablo Fuentes Acevedo, Fernando Cattori, Ximena Lamadrid, Alfonso Herrera, Renata Manterola.

Directed by Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz.

A provocative title, provocative story.

Contemporary Mexico, life with the wealthy upper classes, the status of servants and working classes. But, the particular focus, is on the young adult children of the wealthy families, their being spoilt, their lack of moral sense, narcissistic behaviour, sociopathic behaviour, lack of scruple in their concern about themselves and despising others, scapegoating them for their own crimes.

The focus here is on two young men, one from a wealthy family, the other living with his incapacitated mother, not wealthy. They have built up a long time friendship, and something of a codependence. Xavier lives with his parents and his sister. Later he will admit that he knows there is something wrong with him, sometimes withdrawn, sometimes exuberant, especially in company with Gerardo. And there is a sexual connection with a neighbour, Renata, herself wealthy, spoilt, horse riding, using Tik-Tok…

There is also the picture of the servants in the two households, the chauffeur, his being dismissed for stealing a watch (which the daughter of the house had actually done). When there is a robbery at Xavier’s household, it is the chauffeur who is blamed, his house ransacked, his being tortured and then shot by the police, and the maids under suspicion.

The wealthy family has the police at its disposal and, initially they seemed to investigate the case, they are revealed to be corrupt and brutal.

The robbery in Xavier’s house is perpetrated by Gerardo, masked, and the two young men pantomiming an attack, intimidating the maid. Gerard’s motivation is to give money to his unscrupulous girlfriend and paying off criminal connections.

The second main crime that the two young men perpetrate is to pretend that they have held Renata for ransom, phone calls to her doctor mother, pressurising her by continued phone calls, to get the money from the bank, to deposit in public, the collecting it.

The audience thinks that the police are moving into arrest Gerardo but then show their true colours.

Which means that all the characters in the film are unpleasant, unlikable, so a sour kind of experience for the audience having to admit that these characters do exist and behave like this in real life.