In the Pit (En El Hoyo)

Director, Juan Carlos Rulfo. Mexico, 2006. 84 min.

IN THE PIT demonstrates in starkly realistic detail why Mexicans have a proverb warning that the devil demands a soul for every bridge built.  The ambitious project of constructing the massive elevated beltway around Mexico City, El Periférico, is a marvel of engineering but it comes with a high cost for the men who toil on its soaring towers and in its deep tunnels. The film manages surprising lyricism despite its gritty mise-en-scène, revealing the exploitive side of “progress.”