El Prisionero 13
(Prisoner 13)
dir. Fernando de Fuentes, 1933
México, 76 min
In Spanish with english subtitles

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 10 PM

Fernando de Fuentes’s first installment in his Revolution Trilogy concerns a drunk colonel (Chilean actor Alfredo del Diestro, in one of several wonderfully agonizing roles for de Fuentes) who takes a bribe that ends up biting him in the back. At a lean 76 minutes, de Fuentes’s scathing parable about the price of corruption folds multiple moral dilemmas into a masterclass of melodrama. Del Diestra’s Colonel Carrasco, typifying the naked corruption that seized Mexico in the wake of its revolutionary fervor, provides the Mexican silver screen with one of its slimiest and most memorable characters. With its taut editing, chilling narrative, and distinctive performances, EL PRISIONERO 13 sets the bar high for a filmmaker whose career is full of precise and potent visual storytelling.