Etzel Baez is a Dominican director with, as far as I know, a wild filmography that ranges from acting jobs to directing passion projects. 339 Amin Abel Hasbun. Memory of a Crime belongs to the latter, as it recounts an obscure atrocity that more people need to know about. That atrocity is the assassination of the titular young leftist (Guillermo Liriano) during the 1970s. It’s an event that it depicts in two ways. I’ll get to the second way later, but the first is the investigation of the crime. Attorney General Dr. Marina Ariza Hernandez (Pericles Mejia) and his assistant (Damaris Espaillat) interview the people involved.

There’s a lot of minutiae here where the witnesses have their own versions of who stood where, and Baez mixes up his Rashomon-like film visually. He sometimes films the claustrophobic interviews with wider shots. One such scene captures cop Rafael Antonio Portes Garcia (Mario Nunez) physicalizing more than what he’s saying. Some ways to mix up a formulaic drama work while others doesn’t. And sometimes elements that do or don’t work take place during the same scenes. Or should I say, the interludes between scenes. Before each witness sits in front of Hernandez, the film closes up on things they wear. Or their mannerisms as an indication of their class or innocence of guilt.

Specifically, it works in the interlude scene with Dr. Tuclidedes Martinez Howley (William Simon), whose actions speak volumes. What doesn’t sometimes is the radio voice announcing each witness with the same monotonous tone. I get the intention behind this, since it shows how much all of this is in paper, detaching itself from events viewers will never see. But Mejia is right there, who can express, say, the exasperation that comes with a long day’s work. Although finally, the film’s third act makes for its second way of depicting the atrocity against Abel Hasbun. It reenacts the most likely versions or accounts.

That version is from a plainclothes officer who notes when which witness or perpetrator leaves the Abel Hasbun residence. That departure makes way for the crime to take place. The actors’ body languages give off enough hints at who’s is or who isn’t intentionally bad. And it shows different levels of malice to show how much of power is just complicity and turning a blind eye on things. There’s also a neo-noir element to this act, showing that dramas with real life bases can have aesthetic. Lastly, these final scenes show Abel Hasbun and his wife (Margaux da Silva) before the crime. Scenes with them show that no one deserves to have the same fate as theirs.

Watch 339 Amin Abel Hasbun. Memory of a Crime on OVID.tv.