Alamar, a fresh view on family and nature

Alamar, by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio

Alamar comes from nowhere. It looks like nothing you could have ever seen before. The Mexican movie director Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio gathered three amator actors, including father and son, Jorge and Natan. He sent them in a place they did not know, Banco Chinchorro, one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, located on the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Searching for the devil inside

La tentation de Potosi / Credit : Philippe Crnogorac, Zorba Productions

Yesterday I went to the premiere of “La tentation de Potosi” (The temptation of Potosi, only in one cinema in Paris for the moment). Interesting idea from the French documentary maker Philippe Crnogorac who had already made a film about Bolivia ten years ago. He heard about popular stories where Bolivian miners pact with the devil to get rich. Especially one called Manuel Morales, who disappeared after breaking the pact.

“La Yuma”, Central America’s crude reality

La Yuma

Isolated, suffering from clichés, far away from North America, but also from the South… Central America today is a victim of the syndrome of indifference. And the few incursions of this region of the world on the media theater only occur for tragic events or natural disasters. So when the cinema is interested in it and offers an insight into the daily life of a poor neighborhood of Managua

“Rudo y cursi”… Yes, popular comedies still exist

Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal in "Rudo y cursi"

In Paris these days you could see posters of the movie “Rudo y Cursi” (litterally “The rude and the corny”), which is released on the 1st of September. There was written : “The best Mexican comedy of the year”. Well… First of all, there have not been so many Mexican comedies in the recent weeks. The Mexican cinema is quite wealthy but has not producted many comedies unlike what it was a few years/decades ago.

“Chilango Chronicles”, the essence of Mexican surrealism

Juvencio (Patricio Castillo), Claudia (Regina Orozco) and Jairo (Rodrigo Ostap)

This weekend “Chilango Chronicles”, from the movie director Carlos Enderle, is released in Mexico. Beyond the illustration of how difficult it is nowadays for a Mexican movie to be distributed in its own country – it has been shown first in some festivals and US cities – it confirms the wealthy diversity of Mexican cinema.

The proof by the movie

Pietro Sibille in Days of Santiago

I watched two great movies by chance this weekend. This kind of movies that make you understand many things. The first one is “Days of Santiago”, by the Peruvian movie director Josué Mendez. It is the story of Santiago, a young man that just went out from the Army. During a few years, he fought against drug traffickers, guerrillas and even served in a conflict. When he comes back in the civil life, he has lost all his landmarks and falls into paranoia, fighting against imaginary enemies.