By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Francisco J. Lombardi
Starring: Magdyal Ugaz | Melania Urbina | Montserrat Carulla
Original language title: Mariposa Negra
Country: peru, spain
Year: 2007
Running time: 118
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496799/
Bruce says: “Having seen STATE OF FEAR and THE FALL OF FUJIMORI, the political background of BLACK BUTTERFLY was infinitely more understandable than it might otherwise have been. Those films chronicled the Fujimori presidency and its gradual phasing into a dictatorship. Democracy was abandoned in the name of protecting people from the Shining Path terrorists. BLACK BUTTERFLY focuses entirely on President Fujimori’s henchman Vladimiro Montesinos, the notorious Peruvian mobster, in the context of a single incident and its repercussions. The Shining Path and the political struggles receive little or no attention.
“Gabriela (Melania Urbina) is a schoolteacher who is soon to be married. Her fiancé, a judge, is brutally murdered. Gabriela becomes withdrawn but not for the obvious reasons of grieving or depression. When she sees the headlines ‘gay judge dies in faggot orgy’ she wants revenge. Angela (Magdyal Ugaz) is a news reporter who has lost her integrity. She drinks until she passes out and screws the boss. When she is told what to write, ‘how many words’ is her only question. Both women appear at the murder scene and Angelea befriends Gabriela. Later, Gabriela decides that Angela is her ticket to the inner circles of Lima, places where she can get even with Vladimiro Montesinos, the man who Gabriela believes ordered the assassination. With the help of Angela, Gabriela finds her way to a secretarial school. Dotty, the woman who runs the school, is also the most successful madam in Lima. She finds new recruits among the students and arranges for her girls to show up at parties where the top Peruvian officials discreetly drink and play into the night. Dotty is an assertive lesbian and Gabriela easily seduces Dotty in order to gain entrée to the inner circle where she knows she will meet Montesinos.
“BLACK BUTTERFLY is a serious film which slides into soap opera way too easily. The story is compelling, but, in general, the acting is weak. The film works well on several levels – political commentary, emotional drama and as a thriller – until Gabriela meets Dotty. Yvonne Frayssinet plays Dotty as a Peruvian Joan Collins, entertaining but inappropriate for the tenor of the film. Gabriela’s heart wrenching story is one of many thousands of ugly tales from the Fujimori/Montesinos days. 3 cats
“BLACK BUTTERFLY screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.”