TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID: A Haunting Tale Of Childhood Lost & Found

The promotional poster for Mexican writer-director Issa López’s latest feature, Tigers Are Not Afraid, prominently features a glowing quote from another great Mexican filmmaker, the Academy Award-winning Guillermo del Toro. It’s a fitting endorsement, as Tigers Are Not Afraid is an absolutely gorgeous, disturbingly dark fairy tale the likes of which we haven’t seen since Pan’s Labyrinth. That being said, it’s also an entirely unique work of art that stands on its own in the pantheon of fantastical horror.

While Del Toro’s film examined one girl’s coming-of-age during the Spanish Civil War, Tigers Are Not Afraid is set during the present-day drug wars that have ripped so many lives apart. The film’s unflinching portrayal of a world wracked by everyday brutality, combined with breathtaking touches of magical realism, ensures that Tigers Are Not Afraid is one of the most memorable films of the year.

A Nightmare is a Wish Your Heart Makes…

Estrella (the phenomenal Paola Lara) is a young girl living with a single mother in a small Mexican town run by a hyper-violent gang known as the Huascas. Estrella cannot even get through a full day of school without needing to duck under her desk to shelter from flying bullets as the Huascas and their enemies rage in the streets. While Estrella is cowering in tears, her teacher offers her three wishes in the form of three pieces of chalk – a fitting extension of the lesson on fairy tales that was so rudely interrupted by the bloodshed outside.

Estrella comes home to what every child in her town dreads – an empty house; her mother appears to have been kidnapped by the Huascas. Lonely and hungry, Estrella takes one of her pieces of chalk and wishes for her mother’s return. Unfortunately, as is the case in so many other fairy tales, wishes don’t always come true the way you’d imagined. Estrella’s mother does indeed return – but she is already dead, a ghastly creature whose brutalized face and body are more monstrous than motherly.

Terrified, Estrella flees and seeks refuge with a group of boys who have been orphaned by the violence of the Huascas. Led by the no-nonsense Shine (Juan Ramón López, who won Mexico’s Silver Ariel for Breakthrough Actor for his hilarious and heartbreaking work), the boys spend their days stealing to survive and their nights hidden in a junk-strewn rooftop lair that, in a more peaceful time, would seem to be a child’s paradise. However, their oasis is soon invaded by the Huascas, who know that the little gang has stolen a cell phone that belongs to one of them and contains a highly incriminating video. The Huascas will stop at nothing to get the phone back – and that includes kidnapping, selling and even killing children.

Estrella’s wishes could help the kids survive, but at what cost? Increasingly haunted by the ghosts of all those who have died as a result of the Huascas’ violence, Estrella is desperate to find a way to escape this living nightmare without losing her young life in the process. To do so, she must channel the strength of the tiger, and abandon the fear that threatens to paralyze her future.

Fantasy Meets Reality

It is impossible to tear your eyes away from Tigers Are Not Afraid; even in the film’s most disturbing moments, it has an elegiac beauty capable of hypnotizing the viewer. The sharp contrast between moments of hyper-realistic violence – Estrella coming across a dead body lying in the street in broad daylight on her way home from school – and those of fantastical joy – a koi pond found in the cracked concrete floor of an abandoned building, a stuffed tiger coming to life to guide Estrella on her quest – results in an exceptionally satisfying emotional journey.

The special effects are fittingly childlike in their simplicity; the aforementioned stuffed tiger, the dragon on a phone case that comes to life to flit through the air, and other magical creatures that populate the film all look as though they could have come straight from a child’s wild imagination, equal parts cutesy and creepy. To combine the realms of fantasy and reality – and all of the darkness and light inherent in both – is not an easy feat for a storyteller, but López does so masterfully.

Far more so than films focused on adults, films starring children live and die by the believability and likability of those child actors. This is especially true in fantasy and horror films that place children in otherworldly situations; it takes a special child to sell the unique aspects of those universes and assist the audience in suspending their disbelief. Fortunately, Tigers Are Not Afraid boasts strong performances across the board from its young cast. Paola Lara is mesmerizing as Estrella, conveying the weight of the young girl’s tragedy and the hope she still holds for the future without missing a step. But the heart of the film is Juan Ramón López, whose performance as Shine is an intense fireball of anger, sadness and strength that lights up the screen.

As the de facto leader of the boys, Shine wears a mask of bravado, flinging curse words and insults about like protective arrows that keep the others from getting too close. Shine has his reasons for putting a protective wall around his heart, as we learn when this tough little boy finally opens up to Estrella about his past. As his initial distrust of Estrella gives way to true friendship and loyalty, Shine’s wall begins to crumble, revealing that at his heart, this tough pseudo-gangster really is just a heartbroken little boy.

And indeed, that is the painful truth at the center of Tigers Are Not Afraid; children like Estrella, Shine and their friends are orphaned by drug violence every day, left to fend for themselves in an uncaring world. Beneath the phantasmagorical flourishes is a story that is all too grounded in reality.

Conclusion

Tigers Are Not Afraid is a standout film that, like the ghosts that haunt its young heroine, will linger in your mind. One hopes that it continues to be remembered come awards season, as López and her young stars deserve recognition for their beautiful, imaginative work.

What do you think? Does Tigers Are Not Afraid sound like a fitting successor to Pan’s Labyrinth when it comes to fantasy-infused horror? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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