Romance Notes

Abstract:

When basic needs of the most vulnerable populations come into conflict with economic projects, necrocapitalist practices are laid bare. Víctor Arregui's El facilitador (The Facilitator, Ecuador, 2013) represents a confrontation between an indigenous group and a wealthy landowner over water rights, mitigated by the film's protagonist, the landowner's daughter. Through dialogue with Achille Mbembe, Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, and Giorgio Agamben on necropolitics, necrocapitalism, and bare life and the state of exception, I explore the film's portrayal of collusion between landowners, businessmen, politicians, and military and police forces in exerting seemingly inescapable biopolitical power over an indigenous highland community. Arregui's use of scene montages in particular draws attention to fissures in the predominant necropolitical, necrocapitalist order. Still, even as El facilitador challenges the status quo and uncovers fissures in a seemingly invincible socio-political order, the film reminds the viewer of how deeply embedded necrocapitalist practices are, not only in Ecuador but around the world.