I cannot say enough good things about We Vanish. Is it a tense thriller? Yes. Is it a piece of agitprop? Yes. Is it a masterfully crafted piece of cinema that pays homage to the film noir genre while keeping a unique perspective? HELL! YES!
I can’t wait for the end of the review; I’m just going to say right now that you should see We Vanish. You should track it down, and you should devour it. Though at less than 30 minutes, it’s a light snack that is incredibly filling, satisfying, and delicious.
“…has to fight her local police and the criminal element to discover what exactly happened to her daughter…”
Set in modern-day Mexico, We Vanish touches on the subject of “Feminicidios.” A horrifying and genocidal trend of young women being kidnapped and murdered. Happening with such frequency that it becomes easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers. This might be why director Astrid Dominguez decided to humanize those numbers by focusing on one family.
Patricia Meneses plays Rocio, a single mom raising her daughter in this climate of fear. The daughter Mia, full of the confidence of youth, doesn’t believe anything bad will ever happen to her and that her mom overreacts to everything. Unfortunately, Rocio is proven right and has to fight her local police and the criminal element to discover what exactly happened to her daughter.
"…a light snack that is incredibly filling, satisfying, and delicious."
