Alias 'La Gringa' (1991)

Germán Gonzále, alias "La Gringa", because he once escaped from prison disguised as a white woman, is a master jailbreaker. During his most recent stint in prison, La Gringa meets a university professor, falsely imprisoned on charges of terrorism. The Professor is locked in the wing with hundreds of members of the ultra-violent, psychopathic, Maoist guerrilla group, the Shining Path, that has fought a bloody and protracted war with the Peruvian government since the 1980s. It is not long before the two men strike up a friendship. When The Professor saves La Gringa from being killed by an old friend turned enemy, La Gringa is forever indebted to his friend and savior; when La Gringa escapes, he has an attack of conscience, and decides he must return to save his friend before it is too late. This decision, however, turns out to be a tragic one. Shot with all the hardboiled style of a gripping prison drama, Alias 'La Gringa' is also a probing portrait into the fractured Peruvian society of the 1990s, where the people were squeezed between the authoritarian right-wing presidency of Alberto Fujimori, and the unrelenting terror of the Shining Path. The Professor acts as a kind of moral compass, rejecting both the state and the rebels, and instead devoting himself to a path of understanding. La Gringa, despite being a common criminal, lives by his own code of honor as well; he refuses to kill, and ultimately wants to publish his journals to show the people the deplorable conditions the prisoners face. The dynamic between the two men forms the heart of the film, it is surely a beautiful portrait of male bonding. In the end, the political is personal, because it is everyday people that lose out, despite supposedly being the subject of all conflict. Shot with passion and conviction, Alias 'La Gringa' is a film that deserves wider exposure and recognition.