Cadejo Blanco (2021) Twisted Coming of Age Tale set in Gangland Guatemala (Review)

A ‘cadejo’ is a mythic creature in Central American folklore that refers to a dog-like creature that comes in two forms; either the white (blanco) cadejo that protects humans from danger and the black (negro) cadejo that attacks them. This Guatemalan crime drama from American writer/director Justin Lerner clearly posits the ‘cadejo blanco’ of its story as Sarita (Karen Martinez, star of the similarly grounded 2013 Guatemalan classic The Golden Dream), a teenager living in an impoverished area of the capital whose sister disappears after a night clubbing. After a paltry response from the police she takes it on herself to find her, which involves following her sister’s boyfriend Andrés, an unsavoury character who’s a part of a notorious gang. This leads Sarita down an Alice in Wonderland-like rabbit hole into a life of crime as she slowly assimilates with this gang to find answers, and whether her cadejo comes in white or black starts to come into question.

Cadejo Blanco plays a tepid balancing act between arthouse crime drama, sobering social comment, and at times a surprisingly thrilling genre film. There are easy comparisons to be made to the Brazilian crime classic City of God, a film also concerned with the easy slide into crime for the impoverished youth of South America, but I personally found this to have much more in common with Sweet Sixteen, Ken Loach’s far more down-to-earth drama of teenagers in Scotland entering the world of drug dealing. However Lerner’s film is a more stylish, cinematic endeavour, with Sarita’s mission to find her missing sister Bea giving it a noirish twist on Sweet Sixteen’s tragic drama. 

One of the film’s greatest achievements is the level of immersion that is created to depict Sarita’s descent into a corrupt world that she has to navigate. Jonatan Szer’s score is a sparse, minimalist soundscape of solely claves and percussion that lets us focus on the sounds of the city. Likewise Roman Kasseroller’s anamorphic photography is pretty phenomenal, in its strongest moments using long steadicam shots to envelope us in this subjective journey through Guatemala’s underbelly. A minor scene of some young boys passing notes between each other to give to Andrés is electric, creating a convincing sense of space and texture to this world. Another shot of Sarita manoeuvring through a sleazy club as she gets in way over her head with her loyalties to the gang is utterly absorbing. 

Scenes like this are where the filmmaking effectively charts Sarita’s journey from a timid girl who prefers to dress ‘like a grandma’, as Bea puts it, to a woman who must use her femininity to assert power and influence. The film’s most action-oriented moments like this are where the film is at its best as they clearly convey the complexity and depth of the drama. It’s a shame that the more sedate scenes of characters talking often fail to live up to the drama, Lerner falls into an arthouse pitfall, particularly common in films about teenagers, of having the characters emote too little and leaving the drama rather sedate at times. True, the drama is often heavy, but when there’s not an ounce of banter between some teenagers from the streets, I start to get the feeling of being an outsider looking into another world, more a tourist than a bystander. It strains the 120 minute runtime, but the film amps up in the second half and deftly blends its genre thrills with its realistic drama.

As the film traverses from its grounded, realistic domestic drama in an impoverished area of Guatemala City, it starts to become more boldly cinematic and nigh on gripping as it goes deeper into its crime plot, an entertainment factor that you can quietly sense Sarita is also experiencing. The final explosion of violence is also the film’s most downright stylish scene, while the final shot has this Graduate-esque come down to reality, perhaps a realisation that this sort of life is very much a reality for many living in poverty and perhaps this experience will have greater repercussions than a mere brush with danger. What ensues is a twisted coming of age story where Sarita is forced to integrate into the sorts of undesirable low level crime work only available to young people living in poverty. As much as she learns to utilise her womanhood to meet the demands of the gang, she also becomes an equal amongst this ultra-masculine environment, establishing authority between them. There’s a possibility that Cadejo Blanco was never supposed to be described as ‘gripping’ or ‘exciting’ when the film is so soberingly class-conscious, but it’s in that uneasy realm of reality and entertainment where the film excels.

Jake’s Archive – Cadejo Blanco