Latin American Cinematica of Los Angeles will host a virtual presentation of the Mexican horror documentary Feral on March 26, 27, 28, 2021 – Friday through Sunday. Due to the current COVID pandemic, the Latin American Cinematic of Los Angeles is having a socially distanced screening of Cine Nepantla for the first time. The streaming will be available online for $5.00 starting Friday March 26 until Sunday the 28 and will be followed by a discussion in English And Spanish with director Andrew Kaiser  and Guido Segal, Screenwriter and movie critic. (Vesper Public Relations, 2021)

Feral takes place in Oaxaca in the 1980s and begins with a news broadcast of the fire that destroyed a building. In interviews of the witnesses, they verify that a man lived there with three children. Later, an investigator confirms that the cause of the fire was undetermined and the identity of the children, age around 10, could not be established but the man was identified as Juan Felipe de Jesús González. The case was not investigated further. The bodies were claimed by Eustaquio Díaz Méndez, a close friend of Juan Felipe who helped him get settled in the area. To find out the truth, the documentary style film pieces together interviews with the native villagers, family members, and personal video journal entries.

Juan Felipe de Jesús González was a monk for five years but left when he and other monks, who were taking part in psychoanalysis, were excommunicated by the church.  He settled in the mountains of Oaxaca and one day he and Eustaquio found a boy living alone in the wild. Juan Felipe decided to take the boy in to attempt rehabilitate him back to society and insisted on videotaping the sessions. Later, he took in another boy and girl who he found chained inside a nearby cage. After he baptized them he named them Cristobal, Antonia, and Juan, after religious martyrs. At first he seems to be making a difference, but when improvements stall, Juan Felipe becomes frustrated and blames himself. The neighbors become suspicious and he becomes known as the bizarre man who is kidnapping children. Not only was he an ex-monk, but he also had a difficult upbringing by a devoutly religious mother, so in the end, he feels like he has failed to save the young children’s souls. It is left to the audience to decide what happened, but the general feeling is that he killed the children, set the fire, and then killed himself.

Feral is labeled a horror movie but it is more like a mockumentary that sets out to investigate the actions that resulted in the tragic fire that killed four people. It also documents one man’s quick descent from confident ex-monk who believes in psychoanalysis to religious zealot plagued with self-doubt who ends up doing the unthinkable. Due to the film using found footage to tell the story, it has a voyeuristic feel and often creates a creepy vibe, but it is not scary. The character development is extraordinary and by the end of the movie, the audience comes to empathize with Juan Felipe. The shock value is high when it comes to seeing the savage children onscreen but it serves to make us examine what truly makes us human and what constitutes acceptable social behavior. It also explores the role religion plays in morality and ethics.

Director: Andrés Kaiser
Year: 2018
Duration: 98 Minutes
Spanish with English subtitles