Almost the entirety of the harrowing thriller Kidnap Capital unfolds within a suburban ranch home in Phoenix, Arizona. On the outside, this residence resembles every other house on the block, but within is a nightmarish prison. A kidnapping ring run by the house's master, Wyler (Paulino Nunes), abducts Central American immigrants as they cross into the United States from Mexico. Smuggled into the house at night, the victims are stripped and herded into communal cells. They are told that the fee to leave is $2,800. Never mind that most of the abductees are penniless. The prisoners are removed one at a time, handed a phone, and ordered find someone, somewhere, who will cough up the ransom. The alternative is a hacked-off ear or finger, at best.
Writer-director Felipe Rodriguez stages the story of this particular “drop house”—as such prisons are called—as a nightmarish thriller of survival. The film focuses on a handful of archetypal prisoners: Manolo (Johnathan Sousa) and Elena (Michelle Arvizu), a married couple who are separated and desperate to be reunited; Rico (Michael Reventar), the lone hardened gangster among the abductees; and Pedro (Pedro Miguel Arce), a simpleton who sobs for his mother. Wyler, for his trouble, is feeling pressure from his own masters above and from a mutinous lieutenant below.
Loosely based on true events, Kidnap Capital is a gruesome film about an unbearably heinous subject. Rodriguez' feature doesn't shy from the monstrously unjust realities of the situation, nor does it promise that the strong or the deserving will be the ones who survive. While there is a schematic aspect to Kidnap Capital—each of the prisoners dutifully assume their obvious role in the narrative—this predictability doesn't much diminish the film's searing depiction of the crimes that unfold behind closed doors in border country.
Kidnap Capital screens November 9 at 2:15 p.m. and November 11 at 7:20 p.m. Both screenings are at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema. For tickets or additional information, visit the Cinema St. Louis website.
Full Disclosure: Andrew Wyatt is serving as a juror for the New Filmmakers Forum's (NFF) Emerging Director Award at the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.
