New Order

Mexico City, in the near future: The lavish wedding of a wealthy couple descends into chaos during an unexpected uprising by a group of armed men. What follows is a violent coup d’état and the collapse of law, order, and ultimately, humanity “New Order” by Michel Franco (“Sundown”) is not only a gripping thriller but also a radically bleak portrait of society that brutally exposes the consequences of social inequality, along with its violent excesses. The story begins with a seemingly harmless wedding celebration of the Mexican upper class, which is abruptly interrupted by protests from the lower class. From this escalation, Franco develops a nightmarish scenario in which state order and morality disintegrate step by step. The film eschews classic characters with whom the audience can identify and clear-cut perspectives—instead, it confronts the audience with a world in which violence becomes an omnipresent structure. Formally, Franco relies on a cool, almost clinical mise-en-scène, long takes, and abrupt narrative breaks. The fragmented dramaturgy is deliberately disorienting and reflects a society that has lost all sense of stability. Yet this drastic dystopia is less interested in psychological depth than in structural violence: the characters are often mere cogs in a system marked by class divisions, corruption, and abuse of power... and one that, in many parts of the world, no longer feels so far away.