The film opens with one of our main characters, Father Nicolas, hides terrified as a paramilitary force rages through a jungle village, exterminating the natives and screaming to find "The European", obviously him. Suffering from survivor's guilt, he is reassigned to a slum in Buenos Ares, where his mentor, Father Julian (the legendary Ricardo Darin, CARANCHO, THE AURA) is attempting to finish a housing project for the homeless, in his parish's slum. Working alongside atheist social worker Luciana (Martina Gusman, CARANCHO, THE DIE IS CAST), Father Nicolas develops an oath threatening attraction, looking for moral support amidst the insane turmoil, drug addiction, and abject violence of the area. Together, the three are willing to endure almost anything to fulfill the vision of those who came before them, and failed.
The housing project, being built from a long never-finished hospital dating back all the way to the Evita Peron era, hits a standstill when the city and the construction agency (read: the church hiding behind paperwork) refuse to pay the workers, things shut down and come to a standstill, giving the film it's title. Soon the trio are juggling vicious gangs, corrupt police, apathetic church leaders, as well as their own fears and health issues, while trying to lift up the people they have come to love as friends and neighbors and extended family.
The term WHITE ELEPHANT means "an extravagant, impractical gift that cannot be easily disposed of. The phrase is said to come from the historic practice of the King of Siam (now Thailand) giving rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him, so that they might be ruined by the animals' upkeep costs"and I have to wonder if director Pablo Trapero (CARANCHO, LION'S DEN) isn't only pointing at the housing project metaphorically, but also the "gift" of faith and what it requires of someone attempting to truly practice a religious doctrine, and the toll from the relationships the priests and social worker have with the people native to the slum. When a young boy involved with the church falls in with a local drug dealer, and ends up shooting an undercover cop who had been posing as a church volunteer, things finally come to a truly dangerous boiling point, and the faith of the fathers may not be enough to save anyone from the inevitable conclusion brought on by poverty, corruption, and crime.
With notes of Truffaut, Godard, Scorsese, Mallik, and yes, Walter Hill, WHITE ELEPHANT is a masterful piece of film making and well worth any cinephile's time, as are Trapero's other films.
8.5/10
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