In its setup, director Diego “Mapache” Fuentes’s Matapanki struck me as a Chilean version of Josh Trank’s Chronicle: a young man acquires superhero-like powers and soon becomes unable to control his newfound abilities. What Matapanki adds to this story, however, is a really nifty concoction of political satire matched with DIY punk aesthetics. Matapanki is a brief 70 minutes, but the trim runtime certainly doesn’t make the film lightweight. We get a quick setup to establish the overall setting and character dynamics, then there’s an inciting incident and – bang – we’re off. The reason why the film is actually called Matapanki, without giving away anything, is pretty cool too and is revealed to us in a lo-fi grungy opening scene that perfectly gets across the film’s tone.
Matapanki mixes the light and the dark quite often. The comic-book effects given to fight scenes, the exaggerated depictions of corrupt politicians, and the lovingly corny fight-the-power sentiment are matched with a dark undercurrent, as events spiral out of control as lead character Ricardo finds himself on the run from just about every corrupt authority figure that could be after him.
Despite the preposterous escalation in scale though, as one mistake leads to international conflict reported on state TV all around the world, Matapanki wisely keeps things at street-level, not just for budgetary reasons but to preserve the root in its urban setting. The surface-level aesthetics thankfully don’t mask the drama, as characters related to Ricardo get caught up in an incredibly precarious situation, and serve as unintended victims of the chaos he causes.
For the sake of this next point, let’s call Matapanki a ‘comic book movie,’ because it kind of is, it follows similar plot beats at least. Well, the best comic-book movies always have a bit more on their minds, and specifically a lot of Marvel characters (Iron Man and Captain America in particular) are used to parallel discussions on American foreign policy. Well, Matapanki is proof that, even on an infinitesimally smaller budget, that same theme can still be explored.
Much of the satirical elements of Matapanki draw on critiquing U.S foreign intervention and, I tell you what, watching a film from South America tackling this issue not long after the President of the United States launched a sudden intervention of Venezuela made Matapanki hit closer to home than I was anticipating. The political satire is not subtle by any stretch of the imagination, but it succeeds where satire always should: it’s funny, and it’s pointed.
The film certainly embraces its budgetary limitations. The comic-book effects applied to action sequences are big brash blasts of primary colours that starkly contrast with the grungy black-and-white, and the Avengers-level showdowns are creatively edited to give the illusion of grandeur, rather than what they actually are – fights in a back alley. It’s this cheapness that’s also the film’s undoing at times, as the lo-fi aesthetic can sometimes rob the film of tension in its more serious moments. It’s fine whenever the film’s embracing its more punky satirical edge, but when it wants to be dramatic, the “amateurism” (for the want of a better word) can come across as a bit laughable.
Still, after a certain point, I think that just became part of Matapanki’s charm. It’s a short, sweet, bold, brash, and fun melding of genres that achieves lofty ambitions in creative ways, and gets everything done in a compact 1 hour and 10 minutes. If you want a comic-influenced action-packed satire, check it out when it hits a festival near you. If you want to also see a version of reality where the President of The United States gets his comeuppance, then that’s even more of a reason to check it out.
MATAPANKI HAD ITS NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE AT SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2026
