La venida del Rey Olmos

La venida del Rey Olmos
Directed by Julián Pastor
Produced by Conacine, S.A. de C.V.
Written by Eduardo Luján
Starring Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Ana Luisa Peluffo, Maritza Olivares
Music by Gustavo César Carrión
Cinematography José Ortiz Ramos
Edited by José W. Bustos
Release dates
 September 11, 1975
Running time
 90 minutes
Country Mexico
Language Spanish

La venida del Rey Olmos (The Coming of King Elms) is a 1975 bizarre Mexican film written by Eduardo Luján and directed by Julián Pastor.

After returning from the small Mexican town of Dublán, Chihuahua, a strange 20th-century Son of the Father creates a new Church in the outskirts of Mexico City. At the end of the film, one of his beloved female disciples shoots him to death.[1]

Synopsis

The film takes place in the fictitious northern Mexico town of Dublán in the State of Chihuahua, located 1,148 miles (1,848 kilometers) north from Mexico City and 132 miles (213 kilometers) south from El Paso, Texas. This is where Reynaldo Olmos travels to start a new Christian life after leaving behind his wife Chabela and their son in Mexico City. Their son dies of a dysentery shortly after his departure and Chabela must begin work as a prostitute in a brothel called La Sirena. They had lived in a very poor district known as San Cayetano, located in the outskirts of Mexico City, where the streets are unpaved and the making of rudimentary bricks ("ladrilleras") is the main economic activity.

It is the sexennium of the Mexican President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, 1952-1958, and at 34:01 a personage named Venustiano Negrón is shown reading a newspaper, El Nacional, and the eight-column title makes a mention of Ruiz Cortines.

At 2:50 a black man says: "Because I am a black, I may not be baptized or take the communion, I must await the Millennium, the Third Age, it will be when Our Lord return to Earth, to lift the curse of our color."

At 57:29, it can be read a sign inside the temple located in the "Colonia San Cayetano," in the outskirts of Mexico City: "Todos somos iguales, hasta los negros," id est, We all are equal, even the blacks.

Reynaldo goes to dwell in Dublán to search for a new kind of life. He becomes part of a Christian sect which seems to the viewer to be a mixture of Evangelical, Mennonites, and Mormons (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

Meanwhile, Reynaldo is baptized in a Chihuahua river by Brother Donald. Shortly after, he boards a train that takes him to Mexico City where he will start a new congregation of that Church. Authorized and encouraged by Brother Donald, they have an emotional father-son goodbye as he departs.

When Reynaldo arrives to Mexico City he believes he has divine powers. He seeks and finds his godfather and friend who had resigned his job at a factory and has opened a small barber shop. Reynaldo asks him about news of his wife Chabela. The barber tells him that Chabela has become a prostitute and takes Reynaldo to the brothel.

Reynaldo begins drinking with his barber friend and Chabela. He then takes them out of La Sirena into the unpaved street. Reynaldo undresses his "impure ex-wife" and anoints her with water in order to heal her. The viewer hears dogs barking in the distance.

In coming days, he takes over part of the barber shop and establishes a "spiritual doctor's office."

At 23:47, his friend sticks a notice on the front of the humble barber shop, which reads:

"Doctor Reynaldo Olmos, graduado en Estados Unidos y en el E. Santo.

"Por la Gracia Suprema de los Tres. R.O.* 666-2."

"Doctor Reynaldo Olmos, a graduate from the United States and the Holy G.

"By the Supreme Grace of the Three. R.O. * 666-2."

Venustiano Negrón appears and conveys that he is the rich owner of the brickworks. Venustiano tries to seduce his own young and pretty sister-in-law, Martina.

But who seduces her is the leader of the new sect, Reynaldo (now known as King Elms), who no longer follows in the steps of his older brethren and teachers in the church of Northern Mexico (Chihuahua) but instead proclaims himself as the Son of the Father.

Reynaldo has shortened his name to Rey (King), and has started wearing a purple chasuble similar to the ones worn by Catholic priests. Also his now ex-wife Chabela has sewn a square piece of white cloth on the chest of his chasuble. The cloth which shows a dove and reads "Yo Rey Olmos, Soy E. Santo" (I, King Elms, I Am Holy G.*)

At 28:30 Rey admonishes: "Tell your boss that whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him/her before my Holy Father, who is in heaven."

At 29:21, Rey tells his future lover Martina: "You will be anointed with the sacred oil that has been blessed by the Holy Ghost."

At 33:02, Rey--who some may describe as a kind of Mexican Christ-- makes love with Martina and tells her: "My daughter, your faith has healed you, 'Talitha Kumi',* which is the same as 'get up, girl', it is my will and my command."

Martina has now become the lover of Rey Olmos.

As the story progresses, there are money and power struggles between religious leader Rey Olmos ("King Elms") and Venustiano Negrón ("Don Venus").

At 47:17, nude scenes with prostitutes start at a steam bath house/brothel. Rey has been invited to the party by Venustiano Negrón, along with other friends. Don Venus asks a bottle of Batey Rum, one of the finest Mexican rums (from a distillery in Córdoba, State of Veracruz, which no longer operates).

Rey organizes a strike against Venustiano Negrón with the help of this one's brick makers. The religious leader accepts five thousand pesos as a bribe in order to not starting the strike, but then he says that money will be invested in the building of a new temple.

At 53:23, Rey Olmos says he is immortal:

"One moment, one moment, my children, let him do. You can kill me; yet I tell you that I am immortal, I do not mind dying, and that this man makes a martyr out of me."

Near the end of the film, his beloved female disciple--Martina, who the viewer may interpret as a kind of modern Mary Magdalene--shoots Rey to death at the door of the church expecting that he will go to the heavens with his Father and then he will return to this unclean Earth through his immortality.

At 1:21:02 Martina says: "You, who can do everything, do something so that the spikes bloom again. You have to perform a miracle, Rey, you have to die and be resurrected. Rise to the heavens with your Father, and then come down to this unclean Earth. Only then, they will believe in you again."

[Bang!]

Chabela (the ex-wife of Rey), his best friend the barber, and Juan (Martina's ex-boyfriend), agree on that the barber and Juan should throw the cadaver of the prophet into the waters of a nearby channel.

The next day when Chabela opens the coffin, it appears that miraculously Rey has risen from the dead. As his corpse is not inside the coffin, he has ascended into heaven ("as his brother in the Second Age, Jesus Christ, has done as well"). Rey has also left a gift for his congregration: a guitar for the Third Millennium and his followers. Chabela delivers the guitar to the one-eyed guitarist, who becomes the new supreme leader of the sect.

Cast

—
Production design, Alberto Ladrón de Guevara.
Set decoration, Raúl Serrano.

Songs

Production

The film was shot in Mexico by Churubusco Studios at the outskirts of Mexico City, Ixmiquilpan, and Xochimilco.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juOddID1GBM

External links

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