The Untamed (La Region Salvaje), is a beautifully unsettling story about repressed desires reflected on an extraterrestrial being in a small Mexican town.
Cannes winner Mexican director, Amat Escalante’s unflinching eye for social realism remains intact, but the underlying presence of a cosmic element hones in on the very tangible dangers of homophobia, violence against women, and prejudices.
The movie was shot in his home state of Guanajuato, and The Untamed is Escalante’s most uniquely rendered project to date.
It confronts four characters—a housewife tired of her abusive marriage, a gay man in a toxic relationship, a young girl desperate to please regardless of the consequences, and a closeted man unable to come to terms with his orientation—with an entity whose ability to provide pleasure is a double-edged sword.
The soft touch of a tentacle intertwines these characters’ hidden yearnings.
Pleasure and Pain in Guanajuato: Amat Escalante’s The Untamed is an Unusual Sort of Creature Feature (Photo: Moviemaker)
The director, who picked up the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice for this film, spoke to MovieMaker about designing the erogenous being from outer space, the nature of awards, and giving his cast a screenplay for the first time in his career.
Click here to read full interview by Carlos Aguilar with Amat Escalante on moviemaker.com