NEW ORDER
Mexico, France, 2020, 86′, feature film
As powerful as an unexpected blow, as seething with anger as a crowd, as engrossing as political intrigue – “New Order” is a gripping blend of thriller and drama that offers a shocking vision of the near future. Michel Franco, the Winner of the Silver Lion – Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, foresees tomorrow’s consequences of the tensions of today. “”New Order” begins at the very moment when the poor are up against the rich, the colored against the white, the military against society, and chaos takes over the streets. The director observes this powerful upheaval from the perspective of a millionaire family who are hosting their daughter’s wedding at a mansion on the outskirts of Mexico City. The amused elite notice the danger too late, sneaking in unnoticed, like burglars about to crash the party. Will those who have come to settle centuries of harm at least have mercy on those who were once gracious to them? And who will build the “New Order” on the ruins of a failing system? The camera, moving dynamically and smoothly at the same time, takes us into the middle of the events, making us hostages for 88 minutes to the unique style of Franco, who turned out to be a master of genre cinema, an author of a brilliant political diagnosis and a filmmaker whose gripping film can be placed on the shelf next to “The Joker” or “Parasite”. Keeping our fingers crossed that he doesn’t turn out to be a prophet as well.