Notes about Violence in Contemporary Mexican Cinema. An Ethical-Moral Reflection on Heli (Amat Escalante, 2013)

Abstract

In recent years, there have been several Mexican films that approach the issue of violence that was accentuated after the declaration of war against Narcoterrorism during the Felipe Calderón presidency (2006-2012). Some of them were controversial, because on the one hand they have been considered as a critical mechanism of social denunciation and, on the other, as an apology for violence, and therefore susceptible to censorship. This essay shows from Heli (Amat Escalante, 2013), paradigmatic tape for its aesthetic and narrative forms of violence, this double political-moral discourse that results in an ambiguous appreciation. To this end, some ethical considerations will be presented around the moral codes of the State’s legal discourse, in contrast to the position of the director, and finally among the spectators.