Edna (2020)

**By John Higgins **

_Source: Film and TV Now _

Legacy and loyalty are tested to the very limit in the Mexican noir drama EDNA.

Model Alejandro (Andres B. Duran) and writer Christopher (Louis David Horne) are estranged in life and live a spoiled existence in their respective fields. Christopher has a bitchy manager in Catalina (Lili Moreira) who has the hots for him and doesn’t think anything after a book signing to get him up close. Alejandro is struggling with the privilege of being one of the most attractive men, with an attractive partner in Camila (Maia San Miguel) , and resents the fact that he seems to be enough to find himself on page twenty-one of a newspaper.

However, their very brotherly bond comes to the fore when they turn up at their grandparent’s house for a Christmas celebration – and an old associate of their grandfather’s, Israel, arrives with the intent of collecting something from the family when the grandmother passes away – but not without kidnapping the younger brother, Mauricio, who is still a child. Truths and the sibling rivalry look like they are going to have to be put to one side in order to save the younger member of their brood…

An atmospheric and rather perverse take of family and friendship, Sergio Serra’s EDNA, which he directed from a script he co-wrote with Fernando Barrantes, could be viewed as a dream-like reflection of the inner thinking of its’ characters or an Almodovar-styled flip on the classic gangster genre, given that one of its’ characters is prone to a material and sexual fetish. Told in seven chapters, the essence of legacy is the main backdrop in a film that keeps the attention throughout, even if on occasion, viewers might well be drifting into a dream-like state during one or two specific moments of the narrative.

There’s a hint of Coen Brothers-style deception seen in their darker works here and its’ visual pallet reflects a more nostalgic veneer, with crisp sunny colours within the noir. One or two visual elements probably impose on the overall narrative causing the mind to drift, but its’ intent is solid – and arthouse and noir fans have something to cherish here.