Flor de Fango

Last night I watched the Mexican film Flor de Fango, Mudstained Flower. It was intense. Today I found that the story was based on a true story from the UK. I probably would not have watched this movie but the main character was a chemistry professor who gets tangled up with a young lady, a story that I am somewhat familiar. 

Flor de Fango tells the story of middle aged professor, Augusto (Odiseo Bichir) who visits the hospital where his wife's former nanny is dying. At the hospital he encounters the daughter of the dying woman, a 14-year-old girl called Marlene (Claudia Zepeda) in a hospital hallway. Their first encounter sets the tone for the rest of the movie as Augusto stops and stares (unconcerned by what others may think) at the young girl sitting on the floor with the camera dwelling. This is a preview of what is coming in this movie.

Marlene's mother worked in a brothel and her father could be just about anyone in Mexico. There's a hint, told through similar tattoos on legs shared between the young girl Augusto falls in love with and his wife, that Marlene and Ruth worked in the same place. When Marlene's tough half-brother Genaro (Javier Escobar) arrives on the scene, the activities of Augusto's wife are hinted at in ever more damaging detail, but while Augusto is happy to defend his wife's honour, he is even happier to ask young Marlene to run away with him to the coast for a new life together. The grandparents of Marlene have asked Augusto and Ruth to look after the girl, but Marlene's half-brother is having none of that plan; before Augusto has a chance to run away with his teenage crush, Genaro snatches his half-sister and takes her, perhaps even willingly, we don't really know - to a life of seclusion in Mexico City's seediest brothels. Augusto, predictably, gives chase.

I have said enough. I do not recommend this terribly intense movie that shows the worst of people and Mexican inner-city culture.