Part Three: Modern Mexico
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Santo Luzbel; Cochochi; Corazon del tiempo; Chac; Oficio de tinieblas
= Lame, Crummy.
= OK, Watchable.
= Good.
= Very Good.
= Great, Classic.
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= Lame, Crummy.
= OK, Watchable.
= Good.
= Very Good.
= Great, Classic.
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ALAMAR (Tothesea)
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Jorge is a Mayan fisherman living on the Chinchorro shore in the southern state of
Quintana Roo. His wife is from Rome, but she has grown bored of small-town life and
decides to return to Italy with their 5-year-old son, Natan. Jorge and Natan only have a
few days to spend together, so they go out on a fishing trip with Jorge's father so Natan
can learn about their way of life. He teaches the boy how to fish, dive, and navigate
the boat. They befriend a white bird whom they name Blanquita, and the
father teaches the son how to feed her and train her to stand on his arm (the actor,
Jorge Machado, is a bird trainer in real life). Alamar is slow and uneventful but never dull. We savor every
frame of the beautiful cinematography of tropic sea and sky, and the even more beautiful
relationship between father and son. Entirely improvised, almost to the point of becoming
a documentary, the film is full of tender moments that linger in the mind long
afterwards. If you like this one, you'll also enjoy the Peruvian film El regalo de
Pachamama, another father-son story celebrating the simple life. Alamar,
however, does not depict traditional indigenous folkways. The motorboat and diving
gear are modern and the characters are not really presented as Indians per se,
just people. The director's first film, the documentary Toro negro, also featured
Mayans living in Quintana Roo.
Sinopsis en español:
More info at
www.filmmovement.com
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ANIMAS TRUJANO El hombre importante
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The titular character is a petty, jealous, drunk who wishes to be the
mayordomo, or sponsor, of an annual festival, an honor usually
taken by the richest man in town. Animas can't hold down a job, so he
tries to make money by gambling, but has no luck. Only after he sells
his youngest daughter does he gain enough money to attain the hollow
honor of mayordomo. Animas is played by popular Japanese actor
Toshiru Mifune (Hell in the Pacific). Sporting plenty of dance and
music indigenous to the beautiful state of Oaxaca, Animas Trujano
won a Golden Globe for best foreign film. Based on the novel by Rogelio
Barriga Rivas.
Sinopsis en español:
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BAKTUN
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This TV mini-series tells the story of Jacinto (Hilario Chi Canul), a Mayan living in New York City who decides to return
to his native community in Quintana Roo after many years. This is the first telenovela filmed in the Mayan language. The
title refers to the Mayan long count, the cycle of 20 katuns, or 394 years.
Sinopsis en español:
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BALUN CANAN
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The film explores the tensions between whites and Chontal Indians on an hacienda in Comitán (a town
in Chiapas) during the agrarian reforms of President Lazaro Cardenas in the 1930s. The
widowed owner of the land, Zoraida, complies with the law, allowing the Chontales--her former
servants--to cultivate the land for their own benefit, and she provides a teacher, the
illegitimate mestizo son of her brother, to teach the Chontal children. But Zoraida remains
arrogant, and the teacher abuses his students. After this abuse, the Chontales stop working,
and put a curse on Zoraida's son.
Based on the 1957 novel by Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), one of Mexico's greatest writers. "Balún Canán," translated either as "Nine Stars" or "Nine Guardians," was the old Mayan name for Comitán, where Castellanos grew up and experienced the agrarian reform firsthand. Her second novel, Oficio de tinieblas, was also made into a film (see below). Both are available from Gandhi, a Barnes & Noble type of store in Mexico.
Sinopsis en español:
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THE BLUE EYES (Los ojos azules)
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Karen and Paul, a young couple from New York travel to Chiapas, and strange things start happening. A trinket seller turns about to be
really creepy, a Xoloitzcuintle (Mexican hairless dog) follows them from one town to another, and Paul has a recurring
hallucination of a beautiful naked woman. Paul happens to be the grandson of a famous (fictional) author who helped
decipher Mayan writing in the 1950s, and the couple meet a Tzotzil-speaking anthropologist who sees a connection between
the couple's odd experiences and an incident that befell the grandfather long ago. Giving away much more of the plot
would take some of the suspense away from the film. Yaxte, the nahuala (a supernatural being who can change shape in Mayan lore)
is played by Ofelia Medina (La leyenda de la Nahuala, Voces inocentes, etc.). Yixmal, the Indian who knew Paul's
grandfather, is played by Rafael Cortés (La otra conquista, Cascabel, etc.). Facebook page: facebook.com/pages/The-Blue-Eyes-Los-Ojos-Azules/138411376215783
Sinopsis en español:
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LA CABEZA VIVIENTE (The Living Head)
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In this Grade B horror movie, a group of archaeologists explore the tomb of the Aztec warrior
Acatl. They find him perfectly mummified, as well as a severed head of the high priest Xiu.
One of the archaeologist brings these mummy treasures home, where they come to life,
kill his colleagues, and hypnotize his wife, who turns out to be the reincarnation of the
Aztec priestess Xochiquétzal.
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CASCABEL (Rattlesnake)
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A theater director is hired to film a documentary about the Lacandon
Indians in Chiapas. He is given a script and instructions not to change it,
but he documents the squalid conditions of the Lacandon reservation and
interviews many people, whites and Indians, who express their cynicism
toward the government. In the end the director is replaced by a more
"cooperative" filmmaker. Although the characters are not memorable, this
film provides a good introduction to the complexities of Indian politics
in Mexico. Winner of two Ariel Awards: Best Film Editing (Reynaldo P.
Portillo), and Best First Work.
Sinopsis en español: |
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CHAC, EL DIOS DE LA LLUVIA (Chac: The Rain God)
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This mesmerizing film is acted entirely by Mayan Indians. Suffering
from a drought, the Mayans seek out a mysterious diviner (Pablo Canche
Balam) to perform the
proper ceremonies for the rain god, Chac. The diviner takes them on a journey
calculated to test their faith, and only an unnamed mute boy passes the
test. The DVD has an excellent commentary by the director which explains
some of the more perplexing aspects of this strange film. Adding to the
overall mystery is that neither the director nor any of the actors ever
made another film. Check out an interview with Rolando Klein: nativenetworks.si.edu/eng/rose/klein_r_interview.htm
Sinopsis en español:
El director Rolando Klein vivió nueve meses en Chiapas (Temejapa), lugar de muy difícil acceso. A diario debía caminar más de una hora para platicar
con los indígenas, hasta que los convenció para que participaran en la filmación. Cuando el filme se exhibió tuvo mucho éxito, pero surgió un conflicto
sobre la nacionalidad del largometraje por ser el director el inversionista de la película. Mientras se discutía el asunto, la cinta fue guardada en
las bóvedas de la Cineteca Nacional, y por mucho tiempo se creyó que la película había desaparecido en el incendio de 1982. El director dejó el cine y
se dedicó a exportar vinos a Estados Unidos.
Entrevista a Roland Klein:
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COCHOCHI
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Two Raramuri brothers, aged 11 and 12, have just finished elementary
boarding school. The older boy, sullen and rebellious, has won a scholarship to high
school but isn't interested in attending; the younger likes school but didn't win the
scholarship. When their grandfather sends them on an errand to deliver medicine to
relatives in another town, the brothers borrow his horse without permission. They lose
their way, then they lose the horse, and eventually they lose track of each other. The
divergent paths they choose suggest the futures their lives may take. The film shows
beautiful scenery of the Tarahumara mountains and glimpses of Raramuri folkways.
The title Cochochi refers to Okochochi, the Raramuri name for San Ignacio, the town
where the boys live. The actors are brothers in real life and use their real names in the
film, making it almost a documentary, since the story is based on an episode they actually
experienced. Cochochi won several awards at international festivals.
filminlatino.mx/pelicula/cochochi
Sinopsis en español:
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CORAZON DEL TIEMPO Un viaje al Corazón de la Resistencia Zapatista (Heart of Time: A journey into the heart of the Zapatista Resistance)
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Sonia is a young woman in La Esperanza de San Pedro, part of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional) in
Chiapas. Sonia is about to me married to Miguel and has already received a cow as dowry. But she is in love with
another man, the soldier Julio. Now the EZLN has a problem on their hands and the entire community must come together
to resolve the conflict between love and duty. This is the first fiction film about the EZLN, the longest-running
armed Indigenous resistance in Mexico.
Sinopsis en español:
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EN EL PAÍS DE LOS PIES LIGEROS (El niño rarárumi) (In the Country of the Swift Feet)
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On summer vacation 12-year-old Manuel travels with his mother to visit his father, who is working as a logger
in Creel, a town in the Sierra. Manuel meets the 9-year-old Jesús, a Tarahumara boy, who introduces him to his
culture and his family. When the boys go on a camping trip with Jesús' father Benito (played by
Ernesto Gómez
Cruz), Manuel is further immersed in Tarahumara customs and culture and learns about medicinal plants. The
Tarahumara are played by indigenous actors (but incredibly, the actor who plays Jesus is not credited) and we
hear plenty of Raramuri spoken. There is also a scuffle with a band of illegal loggers that comprises
the film's "adventure". This film is the Mexican equivalent of an After School Special--didactic and uninspired.
But there is a good deal of authenticity in the language, costumes and culture, an elaborate healing ritual,
and a fiesta. The film is available on DVD with two other 1980s movies, Un sábado más, and Niño pobre,
niño rico.
Sinopsis en español:
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EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA (On the Seventh Day)
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A group of Brooklyn immigrants who come from Puebla live together in a tiny apartment. They are mostly restaurant workers who have formed
a soccer team that plays in Sunset Park. José is the best player on the Puebla team, and he is also a favorite
employee at the restaurant, because he speaks English, sometimes translates for other employees, and can always find extra help when
needed. Thus José is insdispensible both to the team and to the restaurant. When the final match is scheduled for a Sunday (el séptimo día),
José finds out he has to work. Most of the movie follows José trying to figure out a way to get out of working on Sunday. When there is
no way out, he ultimately decides to play on the team intermittently in between his food deliveries. This is an excellent film,
full of humor, realism, suspense, an an inside look at the lives of Poblano immigrants in New York. I can't say it better than Owen
Gleiberman's review in Variety: "...the real athletic event is José’s attempt to deliver all his
restaurant orders and score goals at the same time. It’s a perfect metaphor for what undocumented immigrants in America have to be:
not the non-people too many see them as — but, in fact, two different people at once. The invisible indentured servant and the
desperate dreamer."
Note: En el séptimo día doesn't take place in Mexico, but there is a scene where José talks to his wife in Puebla on Skype, so it qualifies for inclusion on that basis, besides being a great movie.
cinemaguild.com/theatrical/septimodia.html
Sinopsis en español:
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EN LAS ARENAS NEGRAS (In the Black Sand)
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A graduate student, Anacruz, moves into a cabin at the foot of Popcatepetl Volcano to complete her thesis on modern
beliefs in pre-Columbian myths. In this desolate region she meets a young man who lost his father and a hermit who
lost his son. We also learn about Anacruz's own unfulfilling life: the mother who left her, the father and his third wife,
the boyfriend who also leaves her to take a vow of silence in a local monastery while she struggles to overcome the
silence of her own thesis. The film presents some interesting ideas and situations, but the pacing is slow, the dialogue
is doctrinaire and hollow, and the characters never really come alive.
Sinopsis en español:
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ESPIRAL
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While dozens of movies show immigration from the point of view of the migrants, Espiral tells the story from the
point of view of the people left behind in a small Mixtec town in Oaxaca. Araceli is left behind with her children, while
Diamantina is left by her suitor Santiago, from whom her father had demanded a dowry because he regards the family as
"indios". When Santiago returns three years later with the money, he finds that Diamantina has married someone else.
The real drama begins, however, nine years after that, when Santiago, nearly forgotten, returns yet again and finds that
Diamantina's husband has died. The spiral metaphor may suggest how people get further from their youthful hopes as time
passes. A fresh take on an old story, some beautiful scenery, and a funky folk music soundtrack by Pasatono make this
a worthy effort from a largely inexperienced cast and crew, many of whom reunited for the 2014 film Tirisia.
Facebook page: facebook.com/pages/ESPIRAL/141918730432
Sinopsis en español:
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THE GIRL (La niña)
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Ashley is a young woman in Texas with a crummy job and a trailer home who has been separated from her son.
When she learns that her truck
driving father has been earning extra money transporting Mexicans across the border in his 18-wheeler, she tries to
get in on the action and approaches a small group of people in Neuvo Laredo. She drives them to a wooded place on the
border where the river is low and narrow and tells them she'll wait for them on the U.S. side. But when she gets to the
other side, she finds that most of the people have disappeared, scared away by a border patrol helicopter. Ashley is now
stuck with a little girl, Rosa, who whose mother is among the disappeared. When they learn that the mother has drowned,
Ashley drives Rosa back to her home in San Juan Chicomezuchil, a tiny village in Oaxaca, reuniting the girl with her
grandmother. In Oaxaca Ashley finds everything she never had in Texas: nature, community, self-sufficiency. Beautifully
filmed and acted, The Girl turns the Crossing-the-Border genre upside down by focusing not on Mexicans
experiencing a culture clash in the U.S. but a poor white Texas woman awakening to the spell of a millennial culture.
Director David Riker was also made La ciudad, another excellent film full of originality and finely observed
details. Official website: davidrikersthegirl.com Facebook page: facebook.com/DavidRikersTheGirl
Sinopsis en español:
Un espíritu independiente y ganador del Premio Gotham por su neo-realista película La Ciudad, el director David Riker
vuelve con la emocionalmente devastadora La Niña. Riker ofrece un ambiente inolvidable, un paisaje tejano-mexicano
desolado, para su historia de pérdida y pesar. Concretiza a una mujer incapaz de manejar las demandas de la vida y las
responsabilidades de la maternidad; Cornish aporta a una profunda, conmovedora, y desesperada Ashley, cuyas luchas se
haría mucho más fácil si alguna vez podría aprender a perdonarse a sí misma.
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LA JAULA DE ORO (The Golden Cage)
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Three Guatemalan teenagers set out from their homes to cross Mexico and reach the United States. In Chiapas they run into
a Tzotzil teenager named Chauk (played by Rodolfo Domínguez, a native of Chalchihuitan, Chiapas), who speaks no Spanish but
tags along with them. Sara is the first to befriend him, making her boyfriend Juan jealous. After a tangle with the police,
who steal their shoes, one of the original teens returns to Guatemala in discouragement, leaving Sara, Juan and Chauk to
fend for themselves as they ride on top of trains for thousands of miles, encountering all kinds of people who help and
harm. Although he never learns much Spanish throughout the film, Chauk turns out to be very useful, having
practical knowledge about obtaining food, healing wounds, etc. None of the teens has ever acted in a film before, but
they are all excellent. Rodolfo had to learn enough Spanish to understand the director's instructions, and his performance
is particularly impressive. His ability to show rage, compassion, infatuation and humor is absolutely convincing. Director
Diego Quemada-Díez, born in Spain, has a poetic style reminiscent of Terence Malick, with his fondness for nature and a
camera that lingers over suggestive details, creating scenes that show character rather than just advance the plot.
It won't be long before La Jaula de Oro emerges as a classic of world cinema.
Official site: jauladeoro.com
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EL JUICIO DE MARTÍN CORTÉS El crimen de ser Mexicano (The Judgement of Martin Cortes: The Crime of Being Mexican)
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In contemporary Mexico a play is presented, Martín Cortés: El primer
Mexicano, its two main characters being the two sons of the conquistador
Hernán Cortés. One is the son of Malinche and therefore the first mestizo;
the other is the legitimate son of Cortés's wife. Both half-brothers are
named Martín Cortés. In the play, the mestizo kills his Spanish half-brother.
Unfortunately, the actor who plays him also kills the actor who plays the
Spanish half-brother. The actor is put on trial for murder, and the play
is re-enacted in order to show the jury how the mestizo actor in the course
of his role was inflamed by 400 years of racial prejudice and oppression.
This highly original and thought-provoking film is marred somewhat by
the light-skinned Gonzalo Vega playing an unconvincing mestizo. The film has also been called Los hijos de La Malinche. Pictured
at left is the VHS version.
Sinopsis en español:
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LLOVIZNA (Drizzle)
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Eduardo, a well-to-do suburban businessman, is returning from a trip with a briefcase
full of money. On the way, he picks up four Indian campesinos, bricklayers,
who are returning to the city after attending a child's funeral. They help
Eduardo get his van out of a pothole, and Eduardo gives them a
ride to the city in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain. Holding
so much money, Eduardo worries that the Indians might rob him, and his
fears begin to play tricks with his mind. The Indians are a little
drunk, and they speak Nahuatl in the back seat, adding to Eduardo's fears.
As this is a suspense film that makes the viewer wonder whether the Indians
will rob the driver, I cannot reveal the outcome. The llovizna, or
drizzle, of the title refers to the father's concern that the rain
might penetrate his daughter's homemade coffin. Folkways shown in the film
include a poor rural funeral for the child, and also an Aztec
Dance performance in the city, highlighting the chasm between the exotic,
romanticized Indian and the grim reality of their present-day marginalization.
This in turn reveals the hypocrisy of national Aztec pride flaunted over
furtive prejudices. Loosely based on the very short story "La Llovizna" by Juan de la Cabada.
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MARÍA ISABEL
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Maria Isabel (Adela Noriega) is an Indian girl growing up in Nayarit near the estate of
the wealthy and evil Don Felix. She befriends Don Felix's daughter, Graciela. When Graciela
dies prematurely, she entrusts her illegitimate daughter to Maria Isabel, who must wander
the streets of Mexico City looking for a job and raising the daughter. She endures one
crummy job after another and finally ends up as a maid for kind, handsome and wealthy
Ricardo Mendiola (Fernando Carrillo). They fall in love and marry, and all kinds of
telenovela-ish things happen along the way that no intelligent viewer could care about.
The only interesting plot development comes near the end, when the entire Indian village
gets sick from Don Felix's fertilizers poisoning the river, and the village sets out to
lynch him. Along the way we also
meet Maria Isabel's humble father Pedro (José Carlos Ruiz), her hateful stepmother Chona
(Monica Miguel), and a cute little neighbor named Pedrito (Carlos Campos). Maria Isabel
refers to her people as Aguchon, which is evidently a fictional name, but judging from their
clothing and art, and their location in Nayarit, they are clearly Huichol (you can see some
Huichol-style yarn paintings and other folk art in Mendiola's home after they are married).
This is essentially a rags-to-riches tale, and we see Maria Isabel gradually dropping her
Indian braids, earrings and dress in favor of diamonds, sleek couture, and lightened hair.
If only she had stayed with her family in Nayarit and spared us 11 hours of this
typically dreadful telenovela.
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MI NIÑO TIZOC (My Son Tizoc)
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The widower Carmelo (Alberto Vázquez) and his 11-year-old son Tizoc (Cuitláhuac "Cui"
Rodríguez) make a living selling flowers in
Xochimilco. The other flower sellers resent him because he sells his flowers cheaper,
so they harass him, vandalizing his house and killing his dog. When father and son watch
an extravagant pageant called a posada, which enacts beggars asking for food at a house
and being refused at the front door but accepted at the back door, Tizoc wants to have
a posada of his own--making the film almost a parody of Macario (above). They buy
a chicken and a piñata, but Tizoc gets sick from the old, three-peso
chicken and Carmelo has to take him to the doctor. He wraps up the boy in a petate like
a taco and carries him to the Hospital Infantil de México, where he sees
Diego Rivera's indigenous-themed painting, La piñata. After checking in his son,
Carmelo is robbed,
and when the police come, they think Carmelo robbed the thief, so they lock up Carmelo.
After five days Carmelo finally persuades the police to let him see his son in the
hospital. Tizoc has recovered, but when the return home they find their house burned by
the resentful neighbors. The ceaseless persecution Carmelo suffers is painful to watch,
despite the attempts at humor. Although the film could be described as a musical comedy,
the death of the dog and the burning of the house are just too much to take, even though
the characters accept their misfortunes with the dignity and equanimity that commercial
films like to bestow on minorities. The DVD includes a 12-minute documentary on
director Ismael Rodriguez.
Sinopsis en español:
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OFICIO DE TINIEBLAS (Duty of Darkness)
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The film seems to take place in the 1970s, though it is based on the
classic novel by Rosario Castellanos set in 1934, which was
in turn based on an 1867 uprising of the Chamula Indians working on an
hacienda (very little evidence survives of the original incident).
The Chamulas
crucify a small boy in order to have their own savior, who comes to be
known as El Cristo indigena. You can usually find the DVD on Ebay.
It's one of those blurry, unsubtitled, no-frills releases that they make in Mexico,
but the film is definitely worth checking out. (The DVD box says 96 minutes
but it is actually 107 minutes.)
Sinopsis en español:
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RAÍCES (Roots)
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Four tales adapted from El diosero y otros cuentos, a classic
collection of stories by Guadalajara author and anthropologist Francisco
Rojas Gonzáles (1903-1951). LAS VACAS:
A poor Otomí couple with a baby cannot afford to buy their next meal.
A rich white couple drive by and offer the mother an irresistable salary
as a wet nurse under the condition that she leave her husband and daughter.
NUESTRA SEÑORA: An arrogant anthropology student visits the Chamulas
to write her thesis on their "savage" culture, arguing that they cannot
appreciate art. EL TUERTO: A one-eyed Yucatec boy is taunted by his peers.
His mother seeks the help of curanderos. LA POTRANCA: A married
man in Tajín relentlessly pursues his Indian servant. He offers her father money
to "buy" her. Despite the overly didactic tone (especially in NUESTRA
SEÑORA), this film is quite beautiful. It was Mexico's first independent
film, and won prizes from Ariel and Cannes.
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RITO TERMINAL (Last Rites)
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Mateo, a photographer from Mexico City, visits a small Mixtec town in Oaxaca to document a religious festival and finds himself
inexplicably fascinated by a young woman named Guadalupe (Ángeles Cruz). By meddling in sacred affairs and taking
inappropriate photos, he invokes the wrath of Guadalupe's grandmother, the hechicera Doña Gloria (Soledad Ruiz),
and loses his shadow. In order to get it back, Mateo becomes more and more tangled in Doña Gloria's vexed family history.
This is a strange and disorienting film that veers on the edges of mystery and horror. It was nominated for 14 Ariel
Awards. Unfortunately writer/director Óscar Urrutia Lazo has not made any more feature films, but you can watch his
short film "Reflejos", with Mayan characters, on Vimeo: vimeo.com/65697559
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SANTO LUZBEL (Saint Lucifer)
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In the town of Yohualichan in the north of Puebla, Indians have performed the
Tlayectiltlahtocatzintzin for hundreds of years. This is a coloquio, or religious
pageant, in honor of Saint Michael's battle with Luzbel (Lucifer). But in the five years
since they stopped performing the coloquio (due to the death of the organizer), the Indians
have suffered bad luck: Cirilio's son is sick; Emeterio feels he is
being persued by Saint Michael, and Olegario sees his land taken away by the sheriff.
Olegario feels they must resume the tradition of the coloquio in order to stop the bad
luck. When he is arrested after fighting with the sheriff, he makes his godson Emeterio
promise to perform the coloquio and entrusts him with the sacred text. As they proceed to
rehearse for the elaborate ritual, the mestizo sheriff informs the priest that title of
the text means "Sacred Colloquium of the Great and Holy Lords, San Miguel and Luzbel."
Fearing that the coloquio glorifies Lucifer, the priest forbids the coloquio two days before
el Dia de San Miguel. The Indians decide to perform the pageant anyway and lock themselves
inside the church, culminating in a showdown between the Indigenous community of
Yohualichan and the sheriff's men. Santo Luzbel moves freely between Spanish and
Nahuatl (which they call Mexicano) and is performed by actors from the
Compañía de Teatro Náhuatl, with choreography by Danzantes de San Miguel Zinacapan. It seems
to me one of the most authentically indigenous films made in Mexico. It was nominated for
eight Ariel Awards and won the Diosa de Plata for Best Script.
Sinopsis en español:
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SUEÑO EN OTRO IDIOMA (I Dream in Another Language
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Martín, a linguistic anthropologist, comes to a jungle village in Veracruz to study and record the indigenous Zikril language (a fictional language
invented for the movie). When he arrives he find that there are only three surviving speakers of the language, the aged Evaristo and his
wife, and the hermit Isauro, who speaks no Spanish. Unfortunately, the wife dies shortly after the Martín's arrival, and he finds that
Evaristo and Isauro
refuse to speak to each other, making it very difficult for Martín to study the language without at least a pair of speakers to talk to
each other in a natural setting. Through flashbacks we learn that Evaristo and Esauro were friends in their youth, but fought over a
woman fifty years ago. A sad story with some surprises, and also with some precedent in anthropology.
Cast:
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TARAHUMARA Cada vez más lejos
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An anthropologist working for the Instituto Nacional Indigenista tries
to help the Tarahumara Indians protect their land from greedy loggers
and politicians who do not respect their rights. Somewhat preachy and
old-fashioned by today's standards, the film does show some fascinating
scenes of the Raramuri in their own element, engaging in traditional activities such as deer hunting,
festivals, a baptism, a trial, and of course the footraces for which the Raramuri
are famous. The secondary title, Cada vez mas lejos, means
"Further and further each time," referring to the constant attempt to
drive Indians off their land and into less useful land--a pattern repeated
for centuries throughout the Americas. Tarahumara won prizes from
Cannes and The Mexican Cinema Journalists and was nominated for a Golden
Globe for Best Foreign Picture. Jaime Fernández stars as Corachi; Aurora Clavel plays his wife Belén.
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EL TEJEDOR DE MILAGROS (The Weaver of Miracles)
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Arnulfo is an Indian who weaves baskets with his feet, pretending that he is missing an arm so people will give him
more money. He comes to town on Christmas Eve, bringing his pregnant wife on a mule, seeking shelter and help with the
birth. A midwife finally welcomes them into her barn. Soon rumors spread that a baby is about to be born in a manger on
Christmas Eve. The whole congregation at mass leaves the church and flocks to the house hoping to get
something out of the miracle. The film sways between comedy and tragedy as the sycophancy of the townspeople brings about
disaster. The story seems a bit forced, though the cinematography and acting are excellent. Arnulfo is played by Enrique
Lucero, who does not look indigenous, though he played Indian roles in several other movies. Jacinta is played by Aurora
Clavel, who also acted in Tarahuara, La soldadera, Oficio de tinieblas, and Espiral. Based on a play by
Hugo Argüelles (1932-2003).
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EL TESORO DEL INDITO
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An Indian boy travels from his village to Mexico City to visit his
sister, who is a maid in the house of a famous singer. During one of her
performances, the Indito is accidentally thrown onstage, sings a song,
and becomes a hit. When his father sees his son in the paper the next day,
he too travels to the city, and three Indians get drawn into an adventure
when the foolish father reveals that he has a Revolution-era treasure
hidden back home, thereby attracting the attention of greedy villains. An
unfortunate mix of comedy and violence ensues, including the torture of
the father, Cuauhtemoc-style, by burning his feet. But all ends well when
the villains are caught and thrown barefoot in a prison covered with
nopales. Abounding in stereotypes, El tesoro del indito is
disturbingly complacent and paternalistic. The Indito and his sister are
played by Pepito and Titina Romay, real-life children of the director.
Some Aztec dancing is shown.
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LA TIRISIA (Perpetual Sadness)
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In a Mixteco village in Puebla, two women--Cheba (Adriana Paz) and Angeles Miguel (Gabriela Cartol)--are pregnant from the same man,
Silvestre (Gustavo Sanchez Parra). He was Cheba's lover while her husband was working abroad. He is also Angeles's stepfather. Now
Cheba's husband has returned, but Angeles's mother doesn't want her daughter to keep the baby. The two women nave to decide what to do
with their newborn children, and confront their own needs and desires. With excellent acting and cinematography, this is a
subtle and complex portrait the lives of people in a remote village where many feel trapped, forgotten, and sick with
la tirisia, the sadness of the soul.
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TIZOC: AMOR INDIO
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Tizoc (Pedro Infante), last descendent of the Mixteca rulers, is a proud
hunter who falls in love with the wealthy white girl Maria (Maria Felix).
Her father forbids the marriage, and Maria wavers over whether or not she
is in love with Tizoc. Both Indians and whites oppose the marriage, and
all the odds are against the couple. Despite the schlocky story the film
has some fine moments. Pedro Infante is generally convincing as a fiercely
proud and independent Indian, except when he sings Pedro Infante songs.
Tizoc was filmed in cinemascope, but the DVD from Laguna chops it
down to fullscreen.
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EL TRASPATIO (Backyard)
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Traspatio confronts the epidemic of kidnapping, rape, and murder of women in Ciudad
Juarez that has been escalating over the past 15 years. The film tells two stories. The main
plot is a police procedural following a woman detective's attempt to overcome the
department's corruption and the public's passivity toward the ongoing crimes. And then
there is the subplot that brings a more personal dimension to the tale.
Juanita (Asur Zágada), a native of Cintalapa, Chiapas, arrives in Ciudad Juarez to live
with her cousin Márgara (Amorita Rasgado) and work in a factory. When they go out to a bar, a young man, Cutberto
(Iván Cortés) sitting nearby overhears them speaking Tzeltal (one of the Mayan languages).
He is from Tecpatán, Oaxaca, and also speaks Tzeltal. The two begin begin dating.
Traditional Cutberto wants to ask her father's
permission before they take things further, but Juanita, away from her family for the first
time and exhilarated by the freedom of Juarez, gets bored with Cutberto and publicly dumps
him for another guy. Cutberto's sleazy friends persuade him to take revenge on Juanita,
leading to
a disastrous ending for them both. The early scenes of Juanita and Cutberto,
with their bilingual conversations in Spanish and Tzeltal, are quite charming, and both
first-time actors are excellent, though apparently neither of them are native Tzeltal
speakers. Asur Zágada won an Ariel Award for Best Actress.
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VAHO (Becloud)
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In 1964, a trucker and a prostitute find a baby lying atop his dead Indian mother in the
middle of the desert. The prostitute adopts the baby, who grows up to be a custodian at a
grammar school in Iztapalapa, a district of Mexico City famous for its annual Passion
reenactment during Semana Santa (Holy Week). The custodian seems to be slightly mentally
challenged, perhaps because of
his traumatic infancy, and is riduculed by the children. One day a little girl is accidentally locked
inside the school after hours. When the townspeople find her, they think the custodian
kidnapped her and they lynch and kill him. All this is told in flashbacks. The majority of
the film focuses on the daily lives of three teenage boys who witnessed the lynching:
José reluctantly works at his father’s ice factory; Felipe works at an Internet café where he
cyberstalks pretty girls; and Andrés joins an Aztec revivalist group led by a Nahual
(shaman), hoping to cure his father of alcoholism. The title Vaho (meaning mist) refers to the Mayan myth of creation,
in which the gods put a blinding mist over men's eyes when they realized that their human creations were
too smart to continue worshipping them. The film therefore explores how people are blinded of the past, not only
the recent past of their own lives (the lynching), but also the indigenous history of Mexico, and the different
ways that Mexicans seek to cope with that past: with malevolence, negligence, nostolgia, and
commercialization. "An enthralling mix of history, memory, guilt, and
atonement turns a tangled neighborhood tale into a sly parable about modern Mexico itself."
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VERA
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Juan (Marco Antonio Arzate), an elderly miner in Yucatan, gets trapped in a mine one morning and starts having visions.
He encounters a small blue alien who gradually evolves into a tall slender aluxe (Mayan spirit) named Vera
(Urara Kusanagi). Vera escorts Juan on a mystic, hallucinatory journey full of special effects that mix science fiction,
Mayan and Catholic religious themes, and humor. There is almost no dialogue, just some prayers heard in Spanish, and
some words in an unidentified language (presumably one of the 30 Mayan languages). Some will find this film pretentious
and dull, others fascinating. Vera won Ariel Awards for Best Original Score and Best Special Effects. Website: verathefilm.com
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EL VIOLIN
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This all-too-familiar story of a rural village rebelling against a military
dictatorship is the most-awarded film in Mexican history. The Violin stars
88-year-old Ángel Tavira, a professional violinist who makes his first
film appearance here, as well as providing the soundtrack. Tavira plays
Don Plutarco Hidalgo,
who along with his son and grandson is trying to recover munitions from
their home after their village has been raided and occupied by the army.
Plutarco attempts to re-enter the village by getting friendly with the
occupying captain, who likes the old man's music. He also passes on a legacy
to his grandson Lucio by teaching him folktales and folksongs (such as "El
corrido de los Herrera") which he hopes will help the boy face the uncertain
future. Both urgent and poetic, brutal and lyrical, the film itself feels
like an old ballad, a wise and aged corrido, and yet it is, astonishingly,
the director's first film. Trailer and further info at
filmmovement.com. [Sadly, Angel Tavira died in July 2008. He only made
one more film appearance, in La morenita.]
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YANCO
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An Indian boy (Ricardo Ancona) is hypersensitive to noise and often retreats to the woods
to find solace. One day he meets an old hermit who teaches him how to play
the violin. When the old man dies, Yanco is heartbroken, but a few days
later he finds the old man's violin for sale at a shop. Too poor to buy
it, he sneaks into the store each night and takes the violin out to the
woods to play it. The townspeople fear that the mysteriously disappearing
violin is the work of the devil and they hunt down the source of the
sound in the woods. There is hardly any dialogue in this film, probably
no more than twenty lines throughout, so you don't need subtitles to
understand the infrequent Nahuatl. The story is told through its lovely
black-and-white cinematography and the music. There is not much Indian
culture shown aside from a healing ritual and some dancing. Based on the short story
"Yanko the Musician" by Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz.
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Part One: Historical Films on the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico
Part Two: The Films of Emilio Fernandez
Send comments, questions, or recommendations to:
Si tienes preguntas, comentarios, o sugerencias, escríbeme a:
[email protected]
