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El Puño del Cóndor
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Are you hip to the action cinema of Chile? It’s a good question for all those self-proclaimed ‘movie cultists’ who have seemingly taken over most niche DVD labels these days. The team of director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, martial artist Marko Zaror and Gina Aguad (Zaror’s real-life mentor and mother) has been making action films in Chile since the mid 2000s. Their works include Kiltro (2006) and Redeemer (2014). Although Zaror has crossed paths on-screen with John Malkovich and Mel Gibson, and worked with directors including Robert Rodríguez and Isaac Florentine, this vivacious pocket of Chilean national cinema is still globally little known or acclaimed – either on the international film festival circuit (although Rotterdam gave this film a berth), or in the Anglo-Euro cult axis. El Puño del Cóndor – originally intended as Part I of a series – hoped to change all that. Reliance on special effects is kept to a minimum, as Zaror and his co-stars are genuine practitioners of martial arts. Their well-placed fight scenes are stunning. Since this film, Díaz Espinoza and Zaror have once more collaborated (with Scott Adkins in tow) on the Colombian-American thriller Diablo (2025). Surrounding the spectacle in El Puño del Cóndor is a colourful plot unselfconsciously drawing, in equal measure, from Hong Kong classics and Chilean history/mythology. Zaror plays twins – but sorting out good from evil, and knowing exactly who possesses the sacred book of their Master devoted to the ‘condor’s fist’, would doubtless require several sequels. In the meantime – and just in case the series never continues – revel in the complicated backstory flashes and the galvanising scenes of rigorous training. El Puño del Cóndor offers one definition of pure cinema: physical, exciting, magical, intoxicating. © Adrian Martin 12 December 2022 (+ July 2025 update) |
