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  • 36TH CIFF | March 2012
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The Enemy (El Enemigo)

A dramatic tour de force, THE ENEMY takes place during one anguished night in the lives of two very different people. Antonieta is the single mother of a juvenile delinquent who's just gotten himself into horrific trouble, maybe for the last time. Benigno is a well-heeled assistant district attorney worried sick about his own gravely injured daughter, a university student. The two of them are stranded together late at night in a bleakly-lit hospital corridor. As Antonieta waits for news of the boy who means the world to her, Benigno tries to gently extract information about her son's crimes. Through heart-rending flashbacks that lead up to the present, we realize how closely the stories of the slum dweller and the public official are intertwined. They represent the human faces of just two of the many harrowing existences in violent present-day Caracas. Actress Lourdes Valera is nothing short of astonishing as the grieving mother in denial of just how grim her life has become. (In Spanish with subtitles) – B.B.