DVD: Miss Bala

In Gerardo Naranjo’s Miss Bala, an aspiring beauty queen becomes an unwitting accomplice in the dirty deeds of a criminal gang.

If it sounds like the plot of a cheap thriller, it isn’t – it’s visceral and uncommon, capturing the ferocity and reach of Mexico’s criminal underworld and the terror of being caught in its crossfire.

After witnessing a massacre and confiding in a (unbeknownst to her) corrupt police officer, a shell-shocked Laura Guerrero (Stephanie Sigman) find herself in the grubby hands of the perpetrators. Dragged from one hideous predicament to another, her life becomes a blur of seemingly perpetual peril: although she takes part in her dream beauty pageant, it is experienced through a prism of post-traumatic stress - moments earlier she was at the bloody heart of a shootout. Unusually, we are denied significant insight into the machinations of either the cops or robbers, because this is Laura’s story alone. The leader of the gang in question, Lino Valdez (Noe Hernandez), features fairly sparingly and his intentions toward Laura are, at best, enigmatic - at worst, they will have you squirming in your seat.

As Laura, newcomer Sigman gives an astonishing, mostly mute performance. Her unpleasant escapades aside, we barely even get to know Laura. As the first few minutes illustrate - where the camera studiously avoids showing her head-on - she could in fact be anyone. However, her predicament naturally elicits sympathy and her courage provokes admiration. She’s a victim of misfortune and of a society’s dysfunction – collateral damage if you will. Naranjo’s film largely avoids exposition and innovatively captures the raw senselessness of the war on drugs. Moreover the trauma our heroine experiences serves as a metaphor for the monumental misery the conflict has brought the people of Mexico. The film is only fitfully shot from Laura’s point of view yet we live each moment just as if it were seen through her wild terrified eyes.

Miss Bala unfortunately arrives on DVD without a single extra.

• Miss Bala is available to buy from Monday

Watch the trailer for Miss Bala