The civil war where the underprivileged will grab their rights from the super-rich is a situation that I find looming over our social order. The more the wealthy flaunt their wealth the more the anger and resentment among those who have to worry about their next meal. We area society sitting on a volcano. Michel Franco’s extremely brutal and mesmerizing New Order starts with an upper-class wedding in Mexico. Women in chic gowns and men in designer tuxedos swish by in a posh villa. Champagne, gossip music and some tension mingle, as they always do at weddings. The tension escalates when an old servant of the family (Eligio Meléndez) shows up with an urgent need for money for his wife’s surgery. The way the individual members of the wealthy family react to the do-or-die request says a lot about them, and the direction that this unequal society is heading to.
In no time at all, civil riots erupt on the roads. Gatecrashers invade the wedding, kill and assault the guests. Loot everything they can. Old servants turn against their masters. Not Marta (Mónica del Carmen) and her son Christian (Fernando Cuautle). They remain steadfast in their loyalty right to the blood-soaked end when the ‘New Order’ turns out to be nothing but an excuse for blackmail and extortion. At the centre of this very disturbing story stands Marianne (Naian Gonzalez Norvind), the kindhearted bride of the above wedding, whose life is overnight turned into a living hell for no fault of hers except that she is indescribably wealthy. That Marianne is also an enormously compassionate soul is a quality that holds her in good stead for only a while.
She is soon marched into the rioters’ version of a concentration camp where every inmate has a number written on his or her forehead. What you will see happening to Marianne for the next hour so will repulse and sicken you, as it is meant to. Civil War is not pretty. And it is not rational and just either. The depiction of social inequality and the seething contempt of the working class towards the elite was earlier shown in the overrated Korean film Parasites. Cold Order depicts the consequences of unchecked social inequality with far more intensity. What I really liked about this film is that the rapidly spreading violence shown so graphically doesn’t spare the goodhearted compassionate characters. Everyone is given the same treatment. The perverse karma spares none.
The New Order leaves us with no false hopes. When the civil war happens there is nothing civil about it. It will spare none. This is a cautionary tale filled with dread and despair, brutality and vendetta so bloodied, you will think twice before ordering that new car that you don’t need. Written & Directed by Michel Franco, New Order gets 3 and a half stars.
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Image Source: Instagram/amlimas_movies_series_store_, youtube/thematchfactory