Be prepared to ride a righteous bullet on butterfly wings in the awesome punk rock dark drama Violent Butterflies (Violentas Mariposas), written and directed by an auteur with a safety pin, Adolfo Davila. Trapped in Mexico City, alienated Viktor (Alejandro Porter) studies philosophy at university by day and sprays graffiti on empty walls at night. Like many others, he is sick of how the drug cartels and the city police work hand in hand to operate outside the law. People disappear all the time without a trace, especially women out alone or any journalists who dig into the organized crime connections in the police squads.
Viktor tries going with his buddy Leon (Yayo Villegas) to a meeting of organized anarchists led by Mateo (German Bracco), but is turned off by their dependence on demonstrations and not more defiant acts. He pours his outrage into the messages in his tags, about how passive caterpillars are being turned into violent butterflies. Viktor’s street art catches the eye of a passing by punk rock singer, Eva (Diana Laura DI), who gets where he’s coming from and invites him to see her band play.
“Viktor’s street art catches the eye of a passing by punk rock singer…”
He is blown away by her outrageous performance at the punk club and then is equally floored when he finds out she listens to jazz and studies law at night. Eva likes Viktor’s spray paint poems and starts incorporating them as lyrics for her rebel songs. The friendship between the two catches fire into a studded leather romance, until one night everything goes a deep shade of unspeakable…
For old inked-up punk geezers like myself, Violent Butterflies (Violentas Mariposas) feels like the Saturday Night Fever of punk culture. If that doesn’t sound like the high praise it is, go run see the R-rated version of the Travolta classic. Like that movie, Violent Butterflies is an expert dark drama depicting romance in the ruins of the modern age. The relationship between the main characters is organic and realistic, while at the same time expertly orchestrated to captivate the audience.
"…one of the best punk movies ever made..."
