Winner of the Queer Lion and the Horizons spirit competition at Venice, Mexican director David Pablos new film On The Road / En el Camino is a road trip movie exploring the relationship between a young hitchhiker and a gruff truck driver who travel along the roadhouses and truck stops of North Mexico. The film explores the two building a relationship and exploring their past as barrels closer to them in the rear vision mirror. It’s a harrowing and horny tale about life on the road and the unexpected events that can occur on the open road.
The film revolves around Veneno (Victor Prieto), a down on his luck swindler who moves from truck stop to truck stop relieving male truck drivers and selling drugs to get by. He seems only slightly out of place in this gritty landscape of overly masc. highway diners, make-shift cantinas and rest stops that are fuelled by sex, drugs and booze. After being swindled out of some cash, Veneno runs into Muneco (Osvaldo Sanchez) who agrees to give him a ride but will gladly ditch him at the first sign of trouble. Muneco is married with kids, being on the road he has not seen them for months. Munero is traditionally straight, he has no issue with Veneno’s sexuality and allows him to be himself. They ride, shower, eat and do lines together. As Veneno and Munceo spend more time together, their attraction grows, Veneno gets more bold with his moves and Munceo who is completely out of his mind from the drugs and booze goes along with it.
This is where the story takes a bit of a turn, it doesnt feel like there is a good reason for Muneco to completely ditch his wife and family, the sudden abandoning of his family to be with Veneno doesn’t feel earned or real. Veneno gets into trouble with some extremely dangerous people and this fuels the chase to get further away. Muneco loses himself, caught up in the decision to save his new lover from the police or from the people chasing him.
On The Road appears as a thriller type road trip movie. It veers off into an exploration of hyper masculine trucker culture and the nature of living a life on the road, it does attempt to explore the dangers of being queer in Mexico and the absense of a guiding parent and where that can lead you, however Veneno is barely a redeemable character, so the nuance of this feels lost in the overt sexualisation of these characters who want to pretend to bury their head in the sand while the world keeps moving around them. They can’t escape the outside forces that are trying to pull Veneno away and Muneco’s family, who he seems to have little care for, feel insequential to the situation.
For all of its faults, On The Road is a fascinating look into the world of truckers in North Mexico, I can hand on my heart say that I have never witnessed a film in this setting before, particularly one that is so overtly horny placing sex over story, the visuals are incredibly beautiful and the dusty smoke of the open road with transient cantinas and markets is beautiful to watch.
On The Road is screening as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Get your tickets here
