The Mexican Film Week is due to commence at the IFI. Five of the best films recent Mexican cinema has to offer will be screened over a five day period from the 23rd to the 28th of April.
Broken Hearts (Corazones rotos) 18:20 Friday 23 April 2004
After many years of directing openly commercial films, director Rafael Montero has returned to a personal mode in Broken Hearts, an ambitious mosaic about the existential angst of the Mexican middle-class. The film focuses on the diverse tribulations of the inhabitants of one building contained within a huge apartment complex. Housewife Eva (Véronica Merchant) is leaving husband Horacio (Rafael Sánchez Navarro) because he’s unemployed. Ageing prostitute Celina (Ana Martín) redefines Oedipal relationships with her teenage son, who secretly dresses in her costumes. Good-looking Teresa (Lorena Rojas) experiences a casual sex encounter with a former friend from college. . . . All the characters lead lives of not-so-quiet desperation, and each is suffering from the onslaught of an economic crisis that’s reduced them to living hand-to-mouth.
(Mexico-Brazil-Uruguay, 2001. English subtitles. Colour. 120 mins.)
Director: Rafael Montero
The Faces of the Moon (Las caras de la luna) 14:10 Saturday 24 April 2004
Director Guita Schyfter’s third feature is a light but enjoyable ensemble piece about the struggles and aspirations of modern women. The film describes the interaction between five jurors at the third annual Latin American Women’s Film Festival in Mexico City. Shosh Balsher (Carola Reyna) is an Argentine director who lived in Mexico City as a political exile; Joan (Geraldine Chaplin) is a New York theorist and militant lesbian; Mariana (Carmen Montejo) is the eldest, a filmmaking pioneer modelled after the late Matilde Landeta; Julia (Haydee de Lev) was a Uruguayan terrorist who spent thirteen years in jail; and latecomer Maruja (Ana Torrent) is a Spanish producer. They all perform their duties under the supervision of harried organiser Magdalena (Diana Bracho), who tries to influence the jury’s decision to keep the sponsors happy.
(2001. English subtitles. Colour. 101 mins.)
Director: Guita Schyfter
Pachito Rex—It’s Not Over Until It’s Over 14:10 Sunday 25 April 2004
Produced by Mexico’s state film school, Pachito Rex is an experimental blending of digital video and computer art. Originally conceived as an interactive DVD, the film presents a three-episode conjecture about the title character, a pop singer turned demagogue politician who may or may not have been murdered in an undetermined Latin American country. First time director Fabián Hofman uses computer technology to create virtual scenery to surround live actors with a flat graphic style reminiscent of a comic strip—or, more specifically, of the so-called fotonovela. The technique is eye-catching and the film is also notable for the highly critical stance it takes against totalitarian regimes.
(2001. English subtitles. Colour. 86 mins.)
Director: Fabián Hofman
Violet Perfume (Perfume de violetas) 18:30 Monday 26 April 2004
One of the best Mexican films of recent years, Marysa Sistach’s powerful drama focuses on the growing problem of sexual assault in Mexico City. It’s based on the true story of a friendship between two adolescent girls which is torn apart when one of them is brutally raped. Rebellious tomboy Yessica is frequently in trouble at school and at home. Attempting to escape her aggressive stepfather and odious brother, she befriends the middle-class Miriam, spending as much time as possible in the girl’s comfortable house. Terrified after the rape, Yessica is too ashamed to report the crime and lands both herself and her girlfriend in trouble by resorting to petty crime. Sistach’s sober and realistic film offers a powerful critique of a brutally exploitative society.
(2001. English subtitles. Colour. 90 mins.)
Director: Marysa Sistach
Written on the Body of the Night (Escrito en el cuerpo de la noche) 18:20 Wednesday 28 April 2004
This is a recent film by revered director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo (Doña Herlinda and Her Son), whose 1970s and ’80s works were daring experiments compared with this fairly traditional but superbly acted adaptation of a play by Emilio Carballido. It’s an endearing and nostalgic piece about a filmmaker whose new work, The Woman in Exile, is an autobiographical piece dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky. The main body of the film traces the young Nicolas Argelia’s path to becoming a filmmaker, and in particular the influences of three very different women in his life.
(2002. English subtitles. Colour. 128 mins.)
Director: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo
The Mexican Film Week is organised in conjunction with the Mexican Embassy in Dublin. The selection of screenings will be accompanied by a number of yet to be announced short films.
