Right off the bat, this sounds like a badass story that would be made into a film by Clint Eastwood. It is an insane idea to go into a foreign country to try to capture your father’s killers and really not have a plan other than to document every move on camera. Everything about this is borderline brave and dangerous. And this is part of the problem with the documentary.
Paul hires two bounty hunters, Art and Zora, to help capture the killer(s). But they really never had a well-thought-out plan on how to do that. I understand that Paul isn’t a bounty killer and just wants to do anything that he can to capture this murderer, but it never once feels like they have a solid plan on how to capture him. Art is more of the heavy muscle in the bounty hunter duo, whereas Zora is the more logical and level-headed one out of the two. Art just wants to capture a perpetrator. And at one point, he is sure they have their guy, yet Zora does not think so. Paul doesn’t feel too sure that they have their man based off of Zora’s opinion. Yet, Art is one hundred percent convinced that he is. This happens a lot during the documentary where Art has a “plan” while Paul and Zora aren’t too sure his plans are going to work. It actually gets the trio into some intense trouble at one point.
“Everything about this is borderline brave and dangerous.”
Another issue I found with After the Murder of Albert Lima is its audio. The audio is sometimes hard to pick up, so subtitles are used quite a bit. It happens when there is a conversation over the phone, which is understandable, but it also happens a bit during face-to-face interactions. I’m not going to say that it is much of a huge issue because I can see that the production isn’t what is on the crew’s mind with this type of documentary, it is the resolve of justice that is more important.
Towards the end, I was almost convinced that Paul might not find justice, therefore, may also not find peace, and that was a bummer for me. But, luckily, there is some resolve at the end, and it really makes the documentary worth it. I not only get why Paul had this idea to pull off this insane operation, but I also get why he chose to document it.
"…sounds like a badass story that would be made into a film by Clint Eastwood."
