A disturbing portrayal of the dangers of coercive religion
It is rare that award-winning films bother to cast a realistic and negative light on the subject of religion and the consequent indoctrination of children that occurs in most cultures around the world. But that’s exactly what Joaquin del Paso achieves with his intense Polish-Mexican drama. The hole in the fence. The film was also written by del Paso along with frequent collaborator Lucy Pawlak (Pan American Machines). The hole in the fence The leading roles are played by Valeria Lamm, Lucciano Kurti, Eric David Walker, Yubah Ortega and Santiago Barajas Hamue, alongside a large cast of child actors who make up the strong cast. The film was nominated for more than 15 awards and won the Best Film award at the Cairo International Film Festival.
The film is about a group of children known as the “Children of the Mexican Elite” who were sent from their private schools to a religious summer camp in the countryside on the outskirts of a small town. The on-site camp teacher’s goals are to help the boys increase their physical and spiritual strength, strengthen their faith in God, and build religious structures in missionary work.
With some of the boys already at high tension from not getting along, a huge hole is discovered in the surrounding fence that separates the camp from the nearby town. The boys are on high alert when it is revealed that a criminal intruder or wild animal has invaded the camp’s vicinity, and their stressed emotions begin to turn dangerous.
A demonstration of religious indoctrination
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The dangers of steadfast religious indoctrination of the youth (in this case, the Mexican youth) are made clear in The hole in the fence. From the very beginning of the boys’ arrival, their primary focus is on nothing more than using their religion as a guide and refutation for anything and everything they do. They are essentially forced to do slave labor and set up structures in order to be accepted by the Lord. After another boy was severely beaten by the group for betraying them, the leaders praise him for being “an honest man”.
In fact, the focus on their faith is so limited that the leaders create dangerous and dishonest situations to make the boys even more nervous and scared just so they can turn to God for answers and comfort, for only He will help them to safety from threats. While these threats are very real to the boys and make them lash out even more, they are manipulated by the leaders.
Extremely intentional themes and cinematography
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Joaquin del Paso’s cinematography in The hole in the fence is absolutely stunning. He intentionally dwells on beautiful shots, allowing the audience to absorb both the isolation of the setting and the darkness of the film’s more disturbing scenes. While this isn’t a horror film (although it is a disturbing drama), some of the footage intentionally emits iconic overtones similar to those of popular horror films midsummer or The Wicker Man.
And while the film never really ventures into horror territory, the suspenseful, terrifying themes are certainly there, as some of the moments when things spiral out of control are consistent with that the toxic masculinity issues from movies like The Lord of the Flies or Issa Lopez Tigers are not afraid.
Even with the last shot of the film, the viewer knows exactly what he is seeing and what happened before. Del Paso chooses this moment to linger and give the audience some time to process what they just saw, burning the image into the viewer’s mind for days to come. The technical aspects of the film enable filmmaking at the highest level.
Focus on racism, classism and intersectionality
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In addition to his religious themes The hole in the fence Also highlights racism and in particular the intersectionality of minority children who bully and prejudice others because of things like their skin color or sexual orientation. Racism and discrimination are often addressed in films and their dialogue, but intersectionality is an important under-addressed issue in art.
In The hole in the fence, most of the Spanish-speaking boys are white, upper-class, wealthy children, and they use their privilege to not only look down on the poorer, more brown members of the group, but see the local townspeople essentially as dogs. because of their bad lifestyle. The film even leads to one of the black boys becoming just as hateful and discriminatory as the other kids, just to avoid having to do it more and to gain acceptance in the group; a classic tale of how toxicity can spread within minority power struggles.
The hole in the fenceIt has some extremely relevant and important themes, incredible cinematic work, and a dark story that sticks with you long after the credits have rolled. Joaquin del Paso nailed it with this haunting yet very realistic religious story.
