Movie: Oedipo Mayor

Better known by its title in Spanish "Edipo Alcalde" (1996)

This is a rare movie by Colombian director Jorge Alí Triana, who doesn't have too many titles under his name, but knows how to bring the complexity of a Sophocles tragedy to the screen. I read the Greek tragedy when I was in school, but I found it somewhat heavy for my taste when I was a teenager. Of course, things change and there I was seating at a theatre in Montreal seeing this movie.

This time around, I was completely fascinated by the story, especially when it's transposed to a contemporary setting in the Colombian montainous Andes region amidst guerrilla factions, army colonels, drug lords, and local politicians; and who better to transform the story than the master of magical realism and Nobel prize laurate Gabriel García Márquez, who goes by the nickname of "Gabo" in Latin America.

The cinematography is strikingly beautiful in one of the earlier works of Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, Babel), and the cast is simply outstanding in their interpretation. As for the story, it seems everyone carries guns in that part of the world... even priests. Make no mistake, this is a violent movie, but the audience can feel the thrill in the pace moving to the love scene between Yocasta and Edipo, which leads to the inevitable tragedy.

Unfortunately, the film does not translate very well into English, where some of the scenes may feel too long. Still, it's a very interesting proposition that depicts nt events in the region so well that as to be seamlessly threaded in the Sophocles story.