Paraguay: 7 Boxes (2012)
The thing about thrillers is that they’re highly structured, or at least they should be. Things happen in thrillers that don’t usually happen in real life. Crucially, for a thriller to actually cohere, the separate elements of the plot all need to tie together in a manner that events seldom do in reality. In real life, nothing ever ends. There’s always a tomorrow. You may think you’ve finally resolved something, but you still have to get up the next day. Films don’t have that continuation, which creates an additional problem; if the thriller feels too tidy, it means the script has spent more time on construction than it has on character. If there are too many loose ends, the film fails to satisfy as a thriller. It’s therefore extremely difficult to get the balance right, particularly in a genre which is so plot-heavy.
7 Boxes is a thriller from Paraguay. Victor, an impressionable older teen from Asunción works in the market. Well, daydreams in the market. He is a porter, self-employed and looking for work on an ad hoc basis. None of this is explained, but it’s established extremely well, as is the culture of the market, simply through demonstration. In fact, there’s a deftness to the writing and direction that cannot be underpraised; they’re extremely confident, extremely capable and extremely clear. Events may occur, and they may be bewildering (it’s a thriller – that’s the point) but they’re never confusing.
Victor is tasked to move seven boxes. It’s a ridiculously straightforward set-up, and it’s clear that it’s going to spiral out of control. By the finale, four separate groups are chasing after the boxes (including, at one point, Victor himself after he loses them), there are two separate-but-linked subplots (both of which could easily sustain a film) and a lot of running around. It’s a farce, deliberately so, and in other hands could have been a comedy masterpiece (as it is there are some genuinely hilarious moments). Here, the stakes start off small and become increasingly momentous as Victor is soon running for his life. Or, rather, wheeling, because he’s still carting the boxes around the market.
Given that the majority of the film is set inside the market (the rather worryingly-named market no 4, which suggests at least three other hugely sprawling markets within Asunción) this could feel claustrophobic, but the market is so genuinely massive (and so much is made of its size) that the scale of this never feels limited (plus we have scenes taking place elsewhere which add background to the main plot).
Crucially, and this matters the most, this never feels forced. The characters are allowed to develop through the action, not separately from it, and although many, many loose ends are tied up extremely tidily, they’re each highly satisfying. Running jokes are paid off properly in ways which are not forced. The denouement doesn’t feel staged or artificial – everything comes together in ways that simply feel right. The script is doing a huge amount of work here, and it never shows. There’s a lightness which conceals just how carefully this has been done. And there’s Victor. Celso Franco gives a delightfully vacant performance as the boy (he opens with a faraway look as Victor watches a film on a market-stall, rather than working) which never once falls into stupidity. It’s a lovely performance, and as Victor is the key to this the film wouldn’t have worked otherwise. For this to remain credible we need to believe in him, we need to find him as frustrating as his friends do, but we also need to like and understand him so that we’re engaged by his plight. It’s a difficult balance and Franco manages it with apparent ease. (I suspect there was no ease at all and he put a great deal into his portrayal, but as with the script – written by the directors – it doesn’t show. This is seamless filmmaking.)
The market itself, of course, isn’t just a market – it’s Paraguay. Like any large market in any city, it’s a microcosm of the culture of the country itself. We see from the interactions between the different characters how life works within and without the market. We have the forces of law and order in the police, of organised crime in the owners of the boxes, of disorganised crime in the people looking for the boxes, and of the other various aspects of society in Victor, his friends and his family. This film wouldn’t work anywhere else as it is – this is Paraguay.
And that’s why this works so well.
7 Boxes is a thriller that pleases, that translates well, and that tells us everything we need to know about Paraguay without becoming a treatise. It’s lightly done, it’s extremely involving, and the resolution works just right. This has been one of the highlights of the project so far.
Disc: Blu-ray (region free, USA)
Source: eBay
Availability: Widely available worldwide (DVDs in regions 1, 2 and 4; a region-free Blu-ray from the USA)