ALL ABOUT THE FEATHERS

Chalo and Rocky

"All About the Feathers" is a 2013 Costa Rican narrative feature, directed by Neto Villalobos and made its T+T premiere at this year's trinidad+tobago film festival. This film is 85 minutes long and is in Spanish but with English subtitles. Honestly, I initially thought that the fact that the film was entirely in Spanish would have been a problem for me but the subtitles were very easy to follow along to and the strong impact of the film was surely no less felt. 

The film is a deadpan comedy and centers around the protagonist and main character Chalo, a very awkward looking man with a deep desire to own his own gamecock. You see, Chalo leads an extremely dull life and having a job as a security guard at an abandoned factory does not make his life any better. Chalo is very lonely, he is not seen as having a family or anyone of significance in his life. Chalo has a cellphone and at the beginning of the film, anytime his cell rings, it’s always someone calling a wrong number, which to me emphasises the depth of loneliness or lack of significant people in Chalo’s life. 

Chalo

At the beginning of the film Chalo keeps annoying a shop keeper by endlessly requesting to purchase his bird so that he can enter the bird into cock fighting. You just have to admire Chalo's persistence, the guy just does not give up! Eventually the shop keeper gives in and gives Chalo the bird. The introduction of this bird into Chalo’s life is a significantly life changing moment for Chalo and he is overflowing with happiness and excitement as he now gets to have his own gamecock, which he names Rocky. Rocky is Chalo's new protege but the only problem now is that he has no place to put Rocky, as everywhere he goes, the bird is strictly not allowed. Chalo is left constantly looking for somewhere that he can keep his new bird and train him to fight, which all leads to a string of hilarious events that puts Chalo's love for his new feathered friend to the test. Chalo struggles to find a home for Rocky, but the love and admiration that he has for Rocky does not allow him to give up. 




Along the way Chalo develops three new friendships, not counting the one he has with Rocky. The first friend he makes is with a young boy by the name of Erlan. Chalo meets Erlan on a bus and they both go to watch a cockfight together, sharing a love for gamecocks. The second friend that Chalo makes is with another security guard by the name of Jason. Jason is new to the job and is placed as Chalo's working partner. Jason’s character brings out a lot of the comedy in the film and his character seems to really connect with the audience. I personally find Jason to be one of my favourite characters in the film. Chalo then makes a third friend, who is a woman by the name of Candy. Candy is a maid working in one of the nearby houses and has a very warm, gentle, nurturing and kind personality. Candy teaches Chalo how to use his cellphone to send text messages and regularly texts him and he is seen smiling as he reads her message. Their relationship does not become romantic, they simply remain good friends. The fact that they text each other and more importantly that Chalo now has someone contacting him on his cell phone other than someone just reaching a wrong number, now shows how Chalo’s life is changing as he now has persons of significance in his life. Chalo's newly found friends all support him and even go with him to Rocky's cockfights, proudly and passionately cheering for him and Rocky, even when Rocky loses. It’s important to note that Rocky either directly or indirectly brought these people into Chalo’s once empty life, showing the significant impact of Rocky. Even though Rocky may not have won any cockfights as Chalo had planned, he won Chalo three new friends and by extension, an enhanced and more vibrant life. 

From left to right :
Erlan, Candy, Chalo, Jason

Unfortunately poor Rocky dies and in a most dreadful way too. Jason invited Chalo and the other friends over to his house for his one of childrens birthday party. During the party, Jason shows Chalo a gun he got from a friend and said that he was practising his skills. To be more clear, there is certain exam that you had to take as a security officer and while Chalo passed, Jason failed and had to be removed as Chalo’s security partner, hence the reason Jason is practising so that he can re-take the exam. Chalo shows Jason his shooting skills and then Jason tries and accidentally shoots Rocky, killing Rocky instantly. Chalo and all his friends then have a little funeral ceremony for poor Rocky. Rocky is now gone but he definitely made his mark in the lives of Chalo and his new friends. Chalo's life is no longer the way it used to be, yes he still has his boring job as a security guard but he now has three new friends who I am sure will make his days much brighter. I have no doubt that this incident will not deter Chalo from his cockfighting dream, I'm sure he would probably find some way to get another bird that he can train and enter into cockfights and who knows along the way he might even make some more friends. 



The film is set in rural areas in Costa Rica, in the film you see abandoned building, rusty roof tops, neglected lots, houses under construction, hostels where people just need somewhere to sleep for the night, only to have to find another place to lay their head tomorrow, you see the rickety buses, the cockfighting arenas and the streets. Honestly, whenever I thought of Costa Rica these were not the images I got in my head. I more pictured beautiful sandy beaches, really nice forests to go hiking and other sightseeing places. While all of these places do exist in Costa Rica, filmmaker Neto Villalobos shows the audience a very different, more working-class type of setting. “I see the beauty in chaos,” Villalobos says. Which clearly explains the setting of his film.  Villalobos explains, “I know there are a lot of magical places in Costa Rica, and beautiful beaches, but that’s not what I wanted to show. I love that, but I think there is a beauty in this other Costa Rica that people are not used to seeing." He then goes on to say, “And it’s not, like, ‘Oh, they’re so poor.’ No,” he emphasises. “These are also really happy people and they don’t need a lot of things.” Villalobos does not conceal this part of Costa Rica and although we see no sandy beaches and beautiful forests, there is beauty in the way that these people live their lives and enjoy the most mundane of activities. Villalobos portrays it all in a friendly and fun way, where we can all look at it with easy eyes and smile knowing a lot of us can relate as we may be in similar situations but always aspiring for more. 

The cast of this film includes mostly non-professional actors (and animals). I read that the guy who acted as Jason was a non-professional actor, and I honestly would not have even guessed that unless I read that article. I think in this type of film which focuses on the everyday life of working-class people, unprofessional actors are ideal as these are the people who have the history of living simple, ordinary but happy lives in Costa Rica. For these people, getting into character would happen naturally, giving the show a very realistic quality. All the actors did an excellent job and their characters were portrayed so flawlessly with so much personality that they did not need to go over-board to get a point across, they were simply understood and I loved that. The plot of this film is offbeat but thoroughly worked out. The film is a deadpan comedy and this comedy often occurs during immaculate static shots, where both the camera and the actors have immense control. Most scenes follow one after the next without any breaks in between, showing us everyday life for the working-class persons, exactly as it is in Costa Rica. The manner in which the film is shot, draws the audience into the film, listening to the conversations of the characters, as if we are actually there standing with them. Net Villalobos tells a simple story but with significant effect and this is the kind of story that anyone can relate to; the ordinary man trying to do something that everyone else thinks is irrelevant but does it anyways. 

See below for the trailer of the film! Thanks for reading =)