Orozco the Embalmer (2001) - full transcript
The Documentary portraits the gruesome work of Froilan Orozco, a former police officer who now is an embalmer, with over 40 years of experience as a mortician, Orozco prepares the corpses for burial in one of the poorest and more violent parts of Colombia.
He was a fruit vendor...
This stab is...
This stab is most dangerous.
Were you near here?
So close...
It's a sin!
Shall we cover it up?
Wait a moment.
Take the girl away,
because she is afraid of him.
He is only a boy.
The boy was a fruit vendor.
Some spare change!
Why are you taking pictures?
Institute of Legal Medicine
June 1996
The liver...
Are they reused or thrown away?
I take them out
so that they don't hinder the work.
It has an infarction.
Blood turned to this...
5 litres of blood came out at least.
It always remains in the joints.
The less the volume,
the less the peso (weight) .
Do you leave the rags inside?
-Yes.
The lowest price of this job is mine.
50,OOO pesos (US$50).
lt costs 50,OOO pesos?
There at Gaviria.
it costs 400,OOO pesos (US$400) .
That's the price for embalming.
Who is it?
-It's me.
Did you paint it with cream?
Look at this little shit!
Now I'll knife it.
It's a sin.
Do me a favor?
Why not? Bitch.
What?
-I mean yes.
You are watching how I dress a corpse.
I love dressing a corpse.
This is my way.
Let's get some lunch!
No...
No?
What did she die of?
-An infarction.
This is a woman who has never
made herself up.
Why should I paint her face
like a clown?
These are very rusty.
They are for those who don't have
even a scalpel.
They think that these are the instruments...
Of surgery or something?
These junk scalpels serve for nothing,
but for cutting yourself at once.
You are the only one I have left
to photograph this job.
I'm hiding the stuff here.
I don't have anything.
Frisk me.
Son of a bitch!
I swear I don't have anything!
Don't do that!
I have behaved myself!
Don't do that!
I don't have anything at all!
Son of a bitch!
I gave him 1,OOO pesos (US$1).
but I couldn't get enough to sell.
These are the viscera.
This is an asshole.
This is not a fine stocking.
It works.
This is done in whatever funeral parlor.
Wherever it is.
Well, not in a country funeral parlor.
These belts are my assistant's.
I know that.
October 1996
Orozco wasn't here
because he was in the hospital.
How was it fucked?
A car ran over and fractured
its hind legs.
October 1996
"Che lives in our hearts."
"Gaviria Assassin"
He was darted hard!
He got out from a dumper
and crashed against a cliff.
It's an easy job.
The blood is very scandalous.
It isn't necessary to open the head.
Don't you need to open it?
It's a pity.
But everything is here.
This is pure thread for surgery.
The brains are here,
so his head is empty.
Here's a cerebral mass.
Floirito!
-Sir?
Take the coffin.
-Open the door.
How are you doing?
He is super fine. because the boy was
employed in the funeral parlor.
Go back to the funeral parlor!
This autopsy is rustic.
Nothing was done.
It's half-finished.
The viscera weren't taken out.
It's heavy!
You haven't the strength.
Who?
-You.
After the operation. you had better
take care of yourself.
After the operation, you have to.
What? Water?
My illness is deviation.
Inflammation of the stomach.
Anyway...
You have to take care.
You have lifted bodies for a long time.
Anyway. I have an assistant.
In case of need. he helps me.
Here is a shit!
Let' s wash his arm.
It isn' t there. It' s beneath.
I was looking for it.
How much of it do you pour
into a corpse?
Half a bottle is enough,
because it scalds it.
Pouring more is the same as cooking.
We use it so that it doesn't
putrify rapidly.
Did he get out of the dumper
or bump against the windshield?
He got out of the dumper.
-Did it open?
The bump opened the dumper
and he got out.
He bumped and got out.
And the dumper turned over
and fell down overhead.
Son of a bitch!
He is mature.
Is it hard to restore the corpse like this?
It's restored, too.
But not the same?
The price isn't the same.
but it's restored.
How much does it cost?
Depends. 30,OOO (US$30)
to 40,OOO (US40$) .
It depends on
the funeral parlor's archives, too.
This job costs 10,OOO pesos (US$10) .
He was suffering from prostatitis.
What is it?
-Semen.
Then you know how to restore
a corpse, don't you?
Put the socks "Mijo" on!
It's about to come out.
It doesm t fit him.
I have to put it back and plug up.
Cover up the head.
This is the way to clothe a corpse
with a shirt.
You have to turn a shirt inside out
and tear the back of it.
If I put it from one sleeve to the other.
I can never clothe a corpse.
Hold the neck!
Hold tight!
It's buttoned up.
Reverse it.
Let's finish the rest in the coffin!
Let's get it down.
Be careful!
Bastard!
Let's finish the rest in the coffin!
Place his head well
and remove the bag.
Exactly half an hour.
I switch to a carpenter here.
You were a policeman before.
I was an inspector of the police.
Was the epoch as violent as the present?
Yes. It's the same.
What happened?
Nothing at all.
Shall we stay there, boss?
Yes. I'm going now.
If you work, you can live on.
If you don't, you get hungry.
You understand the meaning
of the work?
This is a point.
I did it, brother.
He has nothing to be afraid of,
except this.
What?
An injection.
I push this knife in the face.
Formaline scalds hard.
How would you like a trip?
Where is she going?
She is going to Sogamoso.
It's hot enough for her to inflate rapidly.
She is filled with liquid.
Why not?
Who taught you?
My career is for 2O years.
Alberta's is for 4 years.
There is no fight on our job between us.
I have to formalize all of the corpse.
It' s a pity that her stomach is closed.
I'm asked to delay this job.
It's full of water inside.
I saw the journalists coming to interview
an embalmer here.
They interviewed Biruta.
Yes, they interviewed for Channel 3.
Why? People think all the embalmers are
blind like him.
He knows the least of all embalmers.
I didn't know that.
Whether he can get something or not.
When he is asked, he follows.
The corpse Biruta embalmed decomposes
because he doesn't know anything.
He was introduced as the best embalmer
in Bogota.
Why does he damage corpses?
The corpses I restore last from 2O days
to 1 month without a smell.
I have to present it.
Froilan doesn't do this...nothing.
How is it? Froilan can't do it.
Son of a bitch.
Water is leaking out much.
When I embalmed an Ecuadorian,
it lasted 6 days.
I spent 3 days and 3 nights
to restore it here.
And I met with another Ecuadorian
in the Los Martinez district...
I asked her how it was
and she said "fine".
Your work is fucking good.
They haven't begun with anything yet.
I understand it.
They haven't begun with anything yet.
Ask me something.
Very cute.
You have to get something for me, brother!
Look at these guts.
This poor old man doesn't even bleed.
The liver.
This formaline scalded him.
It acts in the same way as putting
a piece of raw meat to boiling water.
It's cooking him now.
These rags are put in the visceral cavity
to reform the body's shape.
If I don't do it,
it remains caved in.
When the corpse is bigger, to take out the viscera,
wash them and put them back...
it takes more time,
but in general, 99.99% when they aren't
performed autopsy there...
they are done the same things
as what I did to this corpse.
It' s faster to unlace, take out the viscera,
wash them and put them back.
The head of some corpse is opened, isn't it?
But this is a poor old man.
Opening the head is for taking out
the brains and putting them here.
It' s better for him to leave the brains
because I cut the trachea and two veins.
I overturned it to discharge all the blood...
because the brains go rotten
when they have blood.
Anyway, I cut the trachea and 2 jugulars...
so he has no blood in his head.
This is what every embalmer does.
Whatever another person says is bullshit.
This is done in the funeral parlors...
such as Gaviria, Cristo Rey,
Los Olivos, Cali, Medellin, etc.
But we have to work with conscience.
Some embalmers don't do it.
It's not because they are afraid
or ignorant.
They know that the corpse is buried
the next day and there is no problem.
But the embalmer must open the stomach.
and do what I do here.
Fortunately, I have...
I have conscience to do my best
for a corpse.
It' s possible for me to dress a corpse
and put it in the coffin. So what?
I tried to avoid disgusting my client
for a bad job.
Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,
somebody might tell the family...
or the family to the funeral parlor,
"What the hell was done?! It's decomposed!"
Anyway I don't pay attention, because
I get money from the funeral director.
If I damage a corpse and something bad happens,
the client doesn't come back.
We have talked about violent deaths
in Colombia the other day.
Colombia...
Where the best Castellian is pronounced.
We speak such clear Spanish it isn't
pronounced even in Spain anymore.
How shall we do?
They speak "Blah, blah, blah." there.
Is there an interpreter?
Of course.
Of course. I know that!
About 40 or 50 years ago...
this job wasn't done in the era of Germany
of Adolf Hitler.
They put 40,OOO or 50,OOO people into a hole.
These are the belts which value much to me.
I don' t need to ask for help from another person.
When a corpse is heavy. I put it in the neck
and the legs so that it gets light for me.
My impression is that he didn't die
a natural death.
Something happened to him.
What happened?
He was hit.
And he has four wounds on his back.
The responsible person has already signed
his death certificate.
Leave it as it is.
The mortician will raise his hands.
Of course.
And this is another one
but it isn't useful.
When you were in the police?
Not when l was in the police...the army.
This photo was taken in 1952.
And this was in '85.
For what do you need it?
Wait. Can I copy them?
You have changed so much.
I was 18 years old.
Good-looking.
It was the era of violence
known as''La Violencia''.
I don't know how I survived it.
Was that epoch very hard?
Of course.
Here is your future!
So many lives had been lost
in the 50's and the 60's.
It was by the political violence.
I'll never talk about it.
It was so fucking bad that I hope
it never happens again in my life.
This is my personal file for emergencies.
I keep it here.
The only one that I don't have is dollars.
Bring them.
And enough.
February 1998
I'd like to ask you, as his friend,
how he died.
I just know he had a complication
of diseases.
So he was carried to the clinic.
He was operated at first.
It was the beginning of everything.
He was given a blood transfusion.
but things became worse, like cancer.
A simple operation might cause
a complication of diseases?
Exactly. He had an appointment
to undergo another operation.
But at last, the force that he pushed
inflated the stomach.
It resulted in a hernia.
He was summoned to be operated.
But the doctor said that the hernia was
too advanced to be operated.
He was hospitalized, but shortly.
The kidney was complicated...
and the bile was secreted and yellowed.
Did he die from lifting corpses
and straining himself?
That's right.
As soon as he left the hospital.
he came here.
He was supposed to take a rest.
But, as soon as he left, he came here.
He didn't take a rest.
Then, the internal sutures
were ruptured there.
No, they weren't ruptured,
but a ball was formed here.
He fastened the belt.
but it was of no use.
I think it's because of the force
loaded with the dead.
When did he die?
On Sunday. 2O days ago.
You can see the announcements over there.
They are ripped.
-One poster still remains there.
We were ordered to make the posters.
Where is it?
Look. There is a poster
which says Froilan Orozco.
This is Orozco, my friend.
What do you think about Froilan's death?
No! No!
Come on. we are making a documentary.
No! No! Dangerous!
He is dead anyway.
He is still shooting.
I don't have anything to say
before the camera.
Shal l we go there?
You have shot too much!
Why do you shoot me?
All the people lament the death of Orozco.
What do you think about Froilan's death?
Are you interviewing me?
Where are you from?
What do you think about the death of Froilan,
who had embalmed there?
I don't know him.
The man who died a few days ago?
I know him.
He was a good fellow, wasn't he?
Did he give you change?
I was an assistant.
He gave me 1,OOO (US$1),
but I was robbed of it.
Another man gave me 2,OOO (US$2),
but it turned out to be fake.
Froilan Orozco gave you change.
What are you doing?
Shooting me?
Some change.
-God bless you!
What else do you want me to say?
I love him very much.
God bless him.
I want some cofee.
This shop doesn't give it to me.
Coffee with milk!
I want coffee with milk.
Sell me coffee with milk!
Birutica, son of Biruta
He was a father for me and a master.
What I am is what he taught me.
I can never forget him.
What else can I tell you?
He was a nice person with everything.
I can't tell you anymore.
No more.
With this machete, he had fought.
He wielded it and defended himself.
He had a weapon.
Poor people don't have a cup of coffee
before the job there?
A poor man begins to work!
It's so poor to begin the job
without a cup of coffee in the morning!
Good. It's finished.
Orozco had embalmed
more than 50,OOO corpses in his life.
But he wasn't embalmed.
He doesn't even have a grave.
June 2002
This stab is...
This stab is most dangerous.
Were you near here?
So close...
It's a sin!
Shall we cover it up?
Wait a moment.
Take the girl away,
because she is afraid of him.
He is only a boy.
The boy was a fruit vendor.
Some spare change!
Why are you taking pictures?
Institute of Legal Medicine
June 1996
The liver...
Are they reused or thrown away?
I take them out
so that they don't hinder the work.
It has an infarction.
Blood turned to this...
5 litres of blood came out at least.
It always remains in the joints.
The less the volume,
the less the peso (weight) .
Do you leave the rags inside?
-Yes.
The lowest price of this job is mine.
50,OOO pesos (US$50).
lt costs 50,OOO pesos?
There at Gaviria.
it costs 400,OOO pesos (US$400) .
That's the price for embalming.
Who is it?
-It's me.
Did you paint it with cream?
Look at this little shit!
Now I'll knife it.
It's a sin.
Do me a favor?
Why not? Bitch.
What?
-I mean yes.
You are watching how I dress a corpse.
I love dressing a corpse.
This is my way.
Let's get some lunch!
No...
No?
What did she die of?
-An infarction.
This is a woman who has never
made herself up.
Why should I paint her face
like a clown?
These are very rusty.
They are for those who don't have
even a scalpel.
They think that these are the instruments...
Of surgery or something?
These junk scalpels serve for nothing,
but for cutting yourself at once.
You are the only one I have left
to photograph this job.
I'm hiding the stuff here.
I don't have anything.
Frisk me.
Son of a bitch!
I swear I don't have anything!
Don't do that!
I have behaved myself!
Don't do that!
I don't have anything at all!
Son of a bitch!
I gave him 1,OOO pesos (US$1).
but I couldn't get enough to sell.
These are the viscera.
This is an asshole.
This is not a fine stocking.
It works.
This is done in whatever funeral parlor.
Wherever it is.
Well, not in a country funeral parlor.
These belts are my assistant's.
I know that.
October 1996
Orozco wasn't here
because he was in the hospital.
How was it fucked?
A car ran over and fractured
its hind legs.
October 1996
"Che lives in our hearts."
"Gaviria Assassin"
He was darted hard!
He got out from a dumper
and crashed against a cliff.
It's an easy job.
The blood is very scandalous.
It isn't necessary to open the head.
Don't you need to open it?
It's a pity.
But everything is here.
This is pure thread for surgery.
The brains are here,
so his head is empty.
Here's a cerebral mass.
Floirito!
-Sir?
Take the coffin.
-Open the door.
How are you doing?
He is super fine. because the boy was
employed in the funeral parlor.
Go back to the funeral parlor!
This autopsy is rustic.
Nothing was done.
It's half-finished.
The viscera weren't taken out.
It's heavy!
You haven't the strength.
Who?
-You.
After the operation. you had better
take care of yourself.
After the operation, you have to.
What? Water?
My illness is deviation.
Inflammation of the stomach.
Anyway...
You have to take care.
You have lifted bodies for a long time.
Anyway. I have an assistant.
In case of need. he helps me.
Here is a shit!
Let' s wash his arm.
It isn' t there. It' s beneath.
I was looking for it.
How much of it do you pour
into a corpse?
Half a bottle is enough,
because it scalds it.
Pouring more is the same as cooking.
We use it so that it doesn't
putrify rapidly.
Did he get out of the dumper
or bump against the windshield?
He got out of the dumper.
-Did it open?
The bump opened the dumper
and he got out.
He bumped and got out.
And the dumper turned over
and fell down overhead.
Son of a bitch!
He is mature.
Is it hard to restore the corpse like this?
It's restored, too.
But not the same?
The price isn't the same.
but it's restored.
How much does it cost?
Depends. 30,OOO (US$30)
to 40,OOO (US40$) .
It depends on
the funeral parlor's archives, too.
This job costs 10,OOO pesos (US$10) .
He was suffering from prostatitis.
What is it?
-Semen.
Then you know how to restore
a corpse, don't you?
Put the socks "Mijo" on!
It's about to come out.
It doesm t fit him.
I have to put it back and plug up.
Cover up the head.
This is the way to clothe a corpse
with a shirt.
You have to turn a shirt inside out
and tear the back of it.
If I put it from one sleeve to the other.
I can never clothe a corpse.
Hold the neck!
Hold tight!
It's buttoned up.
Reverse it.
Let's finish the rest in the coffin!
Let's get it down.
Be careful!
Bastard!
Let's finish the rest in the coffin!
Place his head well
and remove the bag.
Exactly half an hour.
I switch to a carpenter here.
You were a policeman before.
I was an inspector of the police.
Was the epoch as violent as the present?
Yes. It's the same.
What happened?
Nothing at all.
Shall we stay there, boss?
Yes. I'm going now.
If you work, you can live on.
If you don't, you get hungry.
You understand the meaning
of the work?
This is a point.
I did it, brother.
He has nothing to be afraid of,
except this.
What?
An injection.
I push this knife in the face.
Formaline scalds hard.
How would you like a trip?
Where is she going?
She is going to Sogamoso.
It's hot enough for her to inflate rapidly.
She is filled with liquid.
Why not?
Who taught you?
My career is for 2O years.
Alberta's is for 4 years.
There is no fight on our job between us.
I have to formalize all of the corpse.
It' s a pity that her stomach is closed.
I'm asked to delay this job.
It's full of water inside.
I saw the journalists coming to interview
an embalmer here.
They interviewed Biruta.
Yes, they interviewed for Channel 3.
Why? People think all the embalmers are
blind like him.
He knows the least of all embalmers.
I didn't know that.
Whether he can get something or not.
When he is asked, he follows.
The corpse Biruta embalmed decomposes
because he doesn't know anything.
He was introduced as the best embalmer
in Bogota.
Why does he damage corpses?
The corpses I restore last from 2O days
to 1 month without a smell.
I have to present it.
Froilan doesn't do this...nothing.
How is it? Froilan can't do it.
Son of a bitch.
Water is leaking out much.
When I embalmed an Ecuadorian,
it lasted 6 days.
I spent 3 days and 3 nights
to restore it here.
And I met with another Ecuadorian
in the Los Martinez district...
I asked her how it was
and she said "fine".
Your work is fucking good.
They haven't begun with anything yet.
I understand it.
They haven't begun with anything yet.
Ask me something.
Very cute.
You have to get something for me, brother!
Look at these guts.
This poor old man doesn't even bleed.
The liver.
This formaline scalded him.
It acts in the same way as putting
a piece of raw meat to boiling water.
It's cooking him now.
These rags are put in the visceral cavity
to reform the body's shape.
If I don't do it,
it remains caved in.
When the corpse is bigger, to take out the viscera,
wash them and put them back...
it takes more time,
but in general, 99.99% when they aren't
performed autopsy there...
they are done the same things
as what I did to this corpse.
It' s faster to unlace, take out the viscera,
wash them and put them back.
The head of some corpse is opened, isn't it?
But this is a poor old man.
Opening the head is for taking out
the brains and putting them here.
It' s better for him to leave the brains
because I cut the trachea and two veins.
I overturned it to discharge all the blood...
because the brains go rotten
when they have blood.
Anyway, I cut the trachea and 2 jugulars...
so he has no blood in his head.
This is what every embalmer does.
Whatever another person says is bullshit.
This is done in the funeral parlors...
such as Gaviria, Cristo Rey,
Los Olivos, Cali, Medellin, etc.
But we have to work with conscience.
Some embalmers don't do it.
It's not because they are afraid
or ignorant.
They know that the corpse is buried
the next day and there is no problem.
But the embalmer must open the stomach.
and do what I do here.
Fortunately, I have...
I have conscience to do my best
for a corpse.
It' s possible for me to dress a corpse
and put it in the coffin. So what?
I tried to avoid disgusting my client
for a bad job.
Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,
somebody might tell the family...
or the family to the funeral parlor,
"What the hell was done?! It's decomposed!"
Anyway I don't pay attention, because
I get money from the funeral director.
If I damage a corpse and something bad happens,
the client doesn't come back.
We have talked about violent deaths
in Colombia the other day.
Colombia...
Where the best Castellian is pronounced.
We speak such clear Spanish it isn't
pronounced even in Spain anymore.
How shall we do?
They speak "Blah, blah, blah." there.
Is there an interpreter?
Of course.
Of course. I know that!
About 40 or 50 years ago...
this job wasn't done in the era of Germany
of Adolf Hitler.
They put 40,OOO or 50,OOO people into a hole.
These are the belts which value much to me.
I don' t need to ask for help from another person.
When a corpse is heavy. I put it in the neck
and the legs so that it gets light for me.
My impression is that he didn't die
a natural death.
Something happened to him.
What happened?
He was hit.
And he has four wounds on his back.
The responsible person has already signed
his death certificate.
Leave it as it is.
The mortician will raise his hands.
Of course.
And this is another one
but it isn't useful.
When you were in the police?
Not when l was in the police...the army.
This photo was taken in 1952.
And this was in '85.
For what do you need it?
Wait. Can I copy them?
You have changed so much.
I was 18 years old.
Good-looking.
It was the era of violence
known as''La Violencia''.
I don't know how I survived it.
Was that epoch very hard?
Of course.
Here is your future!
So many lives had been lost
in the 50's and the 60's.
It was by the political violence.
I'll never talk about it.
It was so fucking bad that I hope
it never happens again in my life.
This is my personal file for emergencies.
I keep it here.
The only one that I don't have is dollars.
Bring them.
And enough.
February 1998
I'd like to ask you, as his friend,
how he died.
I just know he had a complication
of diseases.
So he was carried to the clinic.
He was operated at first.
It was the beginning of everything.
He was given a blood transfusion.
but things became worse, like cancer.
A simple operation might cause
a complication of diseases?
Exactly. He had an appointment
to undergo another operation.
But at last, the force that he pushed
inflated the stomach.
It resulted in a hernia.
He was summoned to be operated.
But the doctor said that the hernia was
too advanced to be operated.
He was hospitalized, but shortly.
The kidney was complicated...
and the bile was secreted and yellowed.
Did he die from lifting corpses
and straining himself?
That's right.
As soon as he left the hospital.
he came here.
He was supposed to take a rest.
But, as soon as he left, he came here.
He didn't take a rest.
Then, the internal sutures
were ruptured there.
No, they weren't ruptured,
but a ball was formed here.
He fastened the belt.
but it was of no use.
I think it's because of the force
loaded with the dead.
When did he die?
On Sunday. 2O days ago.
You can see the announcements over there.
They are ripped.
-One poster still remains there.
We were ordered to make the posters.
Where is it?
Look. There is a poster
which says Froilan Orozco.
This is Orozco, my friend.
What do you think about Froilan's death?
No! No!
Come on. we are making a documentary.
No! No! Dangerous!
He is dead anyway.
He is still shooting.
I don't have anything to say
before the camera.
Shal l we go there?
You have shot too much!
Why do you shoot me?
All the people lament the death of Orozco.
What do you think about Froilan's death?
Are you interviewing me?
Where are you from?
What do you think about the death of Froilan,
who had embalmed there?
I don't know him.
The man who died a few days ago?
I know him.
He was a good fellow, wasn't he?
Did he give you change?
I was an assistant.
He gave me 1,OOO (US$1),
but I was robbed of it.
Another man gave me 2,OOO (US$2),
but it turned out to be fake.
Froilan Orozco gave you change.
What are you doing?
Shooting me?
Some change.
-God bless you!
What else do you want me to say?
I love him very much.
God bless him.
I want some cofee.
This shop doesn't give it to me.
Coffee with milk!
I want coffee with milk.
Sell me coffee with milk!
Birutica, son of Biruta
He was a father for me and a master.
What I am is what he taught me.
I can never forget him.
What else can I tell you?
He was a nice person with everything.
I can't tell you anymore.
No more.
With this machete, he had fought.
He wielded it and defended himself.
He had a weapon.
Poor people don't have a cup of coffee
before the job there?
A poor man begins to work!
It's so poor to begin the job
without a cup of coffee in the morning!
Good. It's finished.
Orozco had embalmed
more than 50,OOO corpses in his life.
But he wasn't embalmed.
He doesn't even have a grave.
June 2002