TAKING the very real problem of racism countries such as Mexico experience between indigenous mountain people and Latino rulers hungry for land, "Men with Guns" explores the idea of every individual's journey to answer all questions and reveal all secrets. Invariably, what is found is not what was looked for, but the journey is nonetheless completed. Riddles, stories, and tall tales abound from the very beginning.

Dr Humberto Fuentes, (Luppi) a successful big city doctor who treats army generals, takes a holiday. Considering retirement, and alone since his wife's death, he decides to trace five former students who were placed in almost inaccessible Indian mountain communities to provide health services to the needy. His warning to them was that their main adversary was ignorance; what we see is that his ignorance of other, more important things, was even greater.

Events soon take a turn for the worse. We are presented with a picture of a bloody and merciless war, which is very real for a few people, while the rest of the world remains oblivious. The lines are never very clear between army and guerrillas. The army is white, and white men are the enemies of the Indians, but there are Indians in the army, capable of just as much cruelty against their own people. In remote villages, the Salt people, the Sugar people, the Coffee, Banana and Gum people, try impossibly to please both sides, while scratching subsistence from the jungle and maintaining the calm acceptance in the face of immeasurable horrors, which has made it so easy for them to be seen as victims.

These are deeply religious people, and religious symbolism abounds. The search is for the promised land - Cerca del Cielo, a mythical village which the army cannot find, where people can live in peace. It means Close to Heaven. The search is not made easy, however, and the faith of the protagonists in themselves is what is most frequently put to the test. The journey that each member of the group undertakes takes them from what they were, and lost, to what they can be.

While acquainting the viewer with hidden atrocities, the story of this journey touches on something everyone can identify with. The addition of a great soundtrack, some beautiful shooting, and the novelty of having indigenous actors in a film with money behind it, makes this well worth seeing.