top of page

Review: "The Kings of the World"

Jennifer Green

This tragic tale of orphaned teens scraping by in Colombia features five standout performances. The Kings of the World has won top festival awards and its country's nomination to the Oscars.


Filmed in a natural realist style, with the camera following the gang of boys closely, the film also has elements of symbolism. The boys repeatedly encounter a white horse, for example, that seems to represent freedom.

In one scene, the camera lingers on a makeshift version of the Colombian national motto -- "Liberty and Order." It's a cruel juxtaposition against the lives of these boys, which lacks any liberty or order at all.


In fact, the violence the boys face wherever they go feels both random and completely baked into the landscape of Colombia. When they're abducted by a group of men in a rural area, the local priest passes them on the road with nothing more than a salutation.


Everywhere the boys go, older adults care for them but also warn them to be careful. They say they want to go somewhere where nobody "beats us up" or "humiliates us."


They understand that's the life they were "given," but they still strive for something different, together. They have each other, until they don't. The film's sad ending couldn't have been any other way. Kings could potentially inspire empathy for those fleeing the violence of these contexts.

 

Read the full review at Common Sense Media.

Images courtesy of Netflix.

Comments


 

A note about privacy: This web is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to share our content you. We do not share personal information with third-parties nor do we store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at any time by modifying your Internet browser's settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other web sites or media without our permission. All art and posters from films used on this site are sourced from distributors where possible, and always represent official art released for press coverage of films. Other images are original. Please contact me directly with questions. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

bottom of page