Submitted by Panama: Tito, Margot, and Me

If measured pound-for-pound or per-capita, Cuba must be the most imperialistic nation in the world. The late Roberto “Tito” Arias would know. He was caught up in the 1959 ill-fated coup d’etat attempting to overthrow the Panamanian government, backed by Castro. Arias should have known better, especially since he and his wife, British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn, were such good friends with John Wayne. They led interesting lives, as viewers learn from the documentary, Tito Margot, and Me, co-directed by their niece Mercedes Arias & Delfina Vidal, which Panama has chosen as their official International Oscar submission.

Fonteyn and Arias met at Oxford, where he was studying and she was performing. Sparks would fly, but it was not until fate brought them together again that they stuck for good. Yet, they still often spent months apart, due to his diplomatic appointments and her busy performance schedule. (Fonteyn was always one of the brightest lights of British ballet, but her star rose even higher when she became Rudolf Nureyev’s preferred partner after his defection from the Soviet Union.)

Unfortunately, Fonteyn was in Panama at the time of the aborted coup and sufficiently involved to find herself behind bars, until the British consulate sprung her. Meanwhile, Arias managed to reach Brazil, where he safely waited out the aftermath, before returning to Panama for his successful political comeback. Ironically, with his renewed prominence, Arias was nearly assassinated when a gunman’s bullet paralyzed him from the waist down. The co-directors and their on-camera commentators are rather sketchy when addressing his possible motives, but apparently some suspect he was a jealous husband.

Arguably, that makes Fonteyn’s devotion and diligence caring for Arias thereafter all the more impressive. Although Arias the filmmaker hardly knew her famous relatives, it is clear she wants to present their marriage as a great romance. It might have been more complicated during the early years, but they certainly stayed together through sickness and strife.

At regular intervals, Arias and Vidal incorporate interludes from dancers Maruja Herrara and Valentino Zucchetti that are appropriately evocative of classical ballet, but also sort of represent interpretive dance in the way they reflect emotional drama experienced by the famous couple, at various periods of their lives.

Diablo Rojo PTY: Panama’s 1st Horror Movie

There is extensive Panamanian folklore regarding evil witches, or Bruja, but most of these characters we are about to meet would rather not hear about that right now. That is because they are running for their lives from a coven with supernatural powers. They have a vehicle, one of Panama’s few surviving festively decorated “Diablo Rojo” buses, but they lack fuel and a reliable sense of direction in Sol Moreno & J. Oskura Najera’s Diablo Rojo PTY, Panama’s first horror movie, which releases tomorrow on Amazon.

The witches are out to get Miguel Moreno, but he has no idea why. It starts with a drunken hook-up that takes a macabre turn, spooking the bus driver badly. Much to the confusion of his assistant, he floors the bus, refusing to heed the cops chasing behind him. Despite what seems like a few minutes on the road, Moreno and the patrolmen pursuing him find themselves miles away from the capitol, outside the country village Moreno grew up in.

They temporarily find refuge with the parish priest, who remembers Moreno and might have an idea about the bad karma catching up with him. Unfortunately, the destructive senior officer sabotages their sanctuary, forcing everyone back on the road.

Okay, DR PTY is not exactly up there with The Exorcist, but its unruly energy and gleeful gore are infectiously entertaining. It is a shame this film will not have more opportunities for first-run midnight screenings, because this film is probably best experienced with a theater full of whooping and hollering horror fans.

Regardless, you can’t keep a knuckleheaded underdog down. We can still appreciate the generously splattering practical effects and the half-serious attempt to draw from Panamanian folk culture and pop culture. As a bonus, the depiction of Padre Andres is mostly sympathetic. Granted, he thinks most of the sanctuary-seekers are idiots, but they mostly are.