THIS IS NOT BERLIN

Hari Sama 2019 Mexico 120min Spanish s-t-en
Synopsis:
Hari Sama’s semi-autobiographical epic of adolescence has the punk potency of Patti Smith’s Just Kids. It’s a work of art with art at its centre. Specifically, the avant-garde climate of experimentation and in-your-face interventions that accompanied the seismic mid-80s shifts of post-quake Mexico City, within which Carlos (Xabiani Ponce De León) goes from bystander to participant. The artists swept up in this movement are accused of “copying the Europeans,” but they are equally swayed by American influences. Rita (Ximena Romo) sports a Patti Smith shag and mixes poeticism into her band’s New Wave tunes. Carlos, who nurses a crush on Rita, has a camera trained on him at a Factory-like gathering, part of a Warholesque “never-ending piece.” Even Carlos himself, as he is steadily influenced by the trippy underground arts scene around him, becomes a multi-talented provocateur, like a Mexican Mapplethorpe. Relied on by his best friend – the possibly gay, Gera (José Antonio Toledano) – and navigating the storms of his own sexual awakening and the surrounding sea of drugs and alcohol, Carlos must decide for himself what’s important: the comforting inclusiveness of popularity or the revolutionary thrust of artistry.