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Highway Patrolman
(El patrullero)

Screening on Film
Directed by Alex Cox.
With Roberto Sosa, Bruno Bichir, Vanessa Bauche.
US/Mexico/Japan, 1991, 35mm, color, 104 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.

While making Walker, Cox hired a driver who regaled him with stories from his previous career as a member of Mexico’s Federal Highway Patrol. From these reminiscences, Cox fashioned a restrained but exciting and even moving tale of a young policeman’s existential struggle to remain honest in the face of crime, corruption and gringo contempt. The beautiful Mexican vistas and the unending roads are captured for the most part in long takes. Cox himself has said that the film was made under the spell of the great Mexican director Arturo Ripstein and has spoken movingly of the film as a tribute to the warmth of the Mexican people who retain their dignity in the face of poverty and violence.

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