Coca leaves making their way from Peru to Downtown Los Angeles. Told in a series of vignettes that are nothing less than startling. The movie ended and I sat in silence staring at the screen. I had been taken for a cinematic ride without any warning. There is something classic about the way the film is shot but there is also something subversive, revolutionary about the ties that link the emotional punches between the different segments. Little Carlito's sounds are carried trough the film, at least, I felt so. Lhamard Tate is breathtaking and he is the one in charge to carry the ball for the last and dangerous stretch. The faces of each one of the characters are as clear in my mind as if I had met them personally. Unfortunately "Seeds Of Tragedy" is not available in DVD.

Undercover in the darkest peru,14 year old Carlitos plucks coca leaves on his father's land.As he picks his pandora's box with the seeds of cocaine, little does he know of the horrors that lie in store.Selling the box to a trader,he lights the touchpaper of a 3,000 miles drug chain.From gun-toting guerrillas in the jungle to corrupt police and pushers in los angeles,the nightmare trip has began.As you can see by this short storyline,the film follows the characters who come in contact with the transported cocaine and the tragedies that come with it.The growers are portrayed as innocent people trying to feed their families and then it quickly gets in the hands of very bad people who kill and hurt some not so evil people like the addicted who are caught in a web of drug abuse.It is for this last category which we feel sadness and pity. A lot of people seem to compare this 1991 made for TV movie(the film is rated 18 years old in the uk even though it has no nudity,no excessive violence & no bad language.Go figure!) to the 1999 theatrical release TRAFFIC which had bigger stars than this one but which i thought was unsatisfying because the story was all over the place.i'm not sure how successful a movie following an object and it's characters can be. The film TWENTY BUCKS followed a $20.00 bill and it's characters.It's probably not the only two films featuring this gimmick but it's the only ones,i can think about right now.I came across this film after becoming a fan of actress Sarah Buxton which appears as a girl who is hired to drive a car to a certain destination.After having a wheel trouble,she discovers drugs in a suitcase.After the flat is fixed she goes park the car where the drug dealer told her to & she calls the cops.Her short role in the film lasts about 10 minutes.The most interesting stuff happens in the last 30 minutes of this very short 1 hour & 13 minutes film but it still lacks something that would have made it a very good film instead of an average one.i'm not sure that those who thought it was an amazing film in 1991 would think the same thing if they saw it today. Many one hour TV series today dealing with similar subjects are much more interesting than this.So the basic idea of SEEDS OF TRAGEDY is good. it probably could be a very good movie if it was remade by the right people but this 1991 film is just a very average production.

What an amazing, unexpected treat. Lorenz Tate, from Dead Presidents fame seals the journey this glorious film encourages us to undertake. My only points of reference were the afore mentioned Lorenz Tate, a truly soulful actor and Martin Donovan, a mysterious and classically unconventional director, I wasn't at all prepared by the jolting surprises, visual and emotional the film had in store for me. It changes style every time that the "seed of tragedy" changes hands. The opening is like a fairy tale, mystic, beautiful, strange, with a performance by Lucino Hernandez that defies description. The film moves through South America with a wink to the early Luis Bunuel. The arrival to Texas is pure Sam Peckinpah, even the score reminds us of "The Getaway" as the journey continues, glimpses of Sam Fuller, Douglas Sirk and Scorsese take us to the emotional wallop of the end, courtesy of another Tate, Lhamar, with another moving, powerful performance. I was and still am kind of numb. I loved the poetry and the daringness. I want to see it again, but the film is not listed anywhere. Did I imagine the whole thing? I hope not and I hope you all can see it too. It doesn't look or feel like anything you've ever seen before, at least not in one single film.

To find something of this quality on a regular TV night is truly rare. I couldn't think of anything else for days. The exquisite care that Martin Donovan (director - Apartment Zero) and Alex Lasker (writer) show for their characters, is contagious and compelling. The face of little Carlitos haunts you throughout the film. It is very odd that a film like this one is not in a list of classics, in fact, I don't know anybody who's seen it. I can't find it on video, it's never part of any "must see" list. The film changes as the "substance" makes its way from Peru into the American inner cities leading towards its inexorable ending. The parade of characters is a gallery of unexpected discoveries, visual and emotional. SUPERB.