Incluvie Rating: -4
Short description of the movie: Michael, a broker in New York, travels to Venezuela to finalize his divorce with his wife so that he can marry his girlfriend. While in Venezuela, he finds that he has a teenage son named Mimi-Siku. Mimi-Siku comes back to New York with Michael. There are many cultural differences that occur with Mimi-Siku, and eventually he returns to Venezuela. Michael travels back to Venezuela and resumes a life with Mimi-Siku’s mother, his wife.
Review: As a child, I loved this movie — I thought it was hilarious. As an adult, I can see that there are so many things wrong with this movie. The main actors are all white. The natives are stereotyped throughout the movie. The tribe that Mimi-Siku and his mother live with are depicted as isolated, rough, and unrefined. Mimi-Siku was given a name that translates as “cat piss.” Throughout the movie, the main character, Michael, mocks many of the traditions and ways of life that he has experienced while in Venezuela. Michael treats the native people as if they are less intelligent than he is. Michael’s girlfriend also refers to Mimi-Siku and his traditions as “savage”-like behavior.
I also felt that the costumes and makeup within the movie are the average stereotypical costumes used to depict indigenous tribes. Even when traveling to the United States and walking around New York, Mimi-Siku continued to wear his makeup, don his loincloth, carry his dart gun, and sleep in a hammock. I feel that the movie portrays cultures like Mimi-Siku’s as incompetent to western cultures. Later the actors meet some Russian Mafia members who are violent and try to hurt the white actors. Again, another stereotype.
Overall this movie makes a mockery of indigenous and Latin American people. It is culturally insensitive and inaccurate. I believe it gives the wrong image of indigenous and Russian people.
Review by Hiedi Mink of Northeastern University on a project with Incluvie
Incluvie rating where +5 celebrates diversity, 0 ignores diversity, and -5 is hateful towards diversity
