Two sisters go out clubbing. In the loos, they drunkenly argue, and one of them storms out. When she wakes up the next morning, her sister’s bed is unslept in. So begins this slow-burn movie from Guatemala that’s not so much an out-and-out suspense thriller as a character study powered by an outstanding lead performance by Karen Martínez. She plays sensible, level-headed Sarita, whose party girl sister Bea (Pamela Martínez) vanishes. Sarita suspects Bea’s disappearance has something to do with the guy she’s been secretly dating. He’s mixed up in a drug gang.
When Sarita reports her sister missing at the local police station, the officer on the front desk barely looks up. Go home and pray, he tells her. Instead, Sarita infiltrates the gang that Bea’s boyfriend Andrés (Rudy Rodríguez) belongs to. The gang boss is the only proper adult in sight; the rest of them barely look old enough to shave. Cadejo Blanco director Justin Lerner spent a year casting non-professionals to play his gang members, and some of his first-time actors have former gang affiliations. They put in impressive performances and give the film a real human quality; gang life here is not all style and bravado; these kids are young and exploited. Their lives have no value, and they know it.
Still, it’s Martínez who shines as Sarita. You can see her visibly toughening up in her new life. Her first test is to pose as a prostitute to attract the attentions of a terrifying gangster in a bar. The way he eyes her up, muscular, perfectly still; he looks like a predator poised to rip apart his prey. Martínez is terrific in these moments, the mask slipping to show flickers of fear. There are a couple of gripping scenes like this, that are hard to look away from, and difficult to watch. But the tension leaks away in the second half; the film could have done with being snipped by a good 20 minutes.
• Cadejo Blanco is in UK cinemas and on digital platforms from 23 August.
