Violence, corruption and disciplinary power in Felipe Cazals' tremendismo trilogy (1975-1976)

Abstract

From a Foucaultean view of power, this work analyzes the violence, corruption and disciplinary power inscribed in the trilogy of the tremendousness of Felipe Cazals. To do this, I have structured the article in four sections plus a final conclusion. In the first, I develope a brief historical approach to the new Mexican cinema of the sixties and seventies. In the second section I analyze the film Canoa, paying attention to the political implications of conservative Catholicism and the dominance it exercises over the inhabitants of the town. In the third section, I examine the film El apanado and reflect on the sociocultural implications of confinement and punishment, and how they are put at the service of a disciplinary power that is exercised from the opacity of prison institutionality. In the fourth section, the film Las poquianchis is studied focusing on violence and institutionalized corruption, that makes prostitution and the female body, a submitted territory and subjected to physical and psychological violence. Finally, the conclusions provide a general reflection, encompassing the political and sociocultural aspects that are transverse to the three ribbons.