An initiation journey
The Conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521 was a historical event of mythical proportions in the gestation of Mexican culture. Five hundred years later and in a globalized environment. Could it be that Mexico continues to be a country that emerges from its ashes? Its political, economic and social contingencies are only the cyclical effects of the impossible task of homogenizing a multi-ethnic conformation under an eternally unfulfilled promise: Miscegenation.
Through the life and work of Kena, a Wixárika artist; Diego, a bullfighter with a centennial dynasty; and Arturo, a bricklayer who plays Jesus Christ, we will travel through the open veins of profound Mexico. A personal look at the land of the dead that became the obsession of travelers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Antonin Artaud or Werner Herzog. This is the land of sacrifice and immortality and this film is an initiation journey. Three people, three stories, three different branches of the same tree.
This is an essay on identity and a mestizo manifesto at the same time. It is the tribute to a rippling wave, a free shuttle, the birth and grave of time under the wheel. It is a tabula rasa. A clean slate.
Cast // Kena Bautista, Arturo Ruiz y Diego Silveti
Production // Alexandra Delgado
Screenplay and Direction // Augusto De Alba
Photography // Alonso Valdez, Iván García, Alejandro Torres
Editing // Augusto De Alba
Sound Design // Arístides Carballo
Music// Nirl Cano
Color Grading// Joe Castañeda, CSI
Sound Mixing Dolby 5.1 // Odín Acosta, AMSC
Director’s Statement
This film was born as a result of searching for an understanding of our identity.
I was intensely drawn to the rural environment of the Mexican Bajío from an early age, influenced by the novels of Juan Rulfo and the stories of the Cristero War that my grandfather (a Cristero orphan) used to tell me. As a city child, the countryside was always a trigger for my imagination. Over time, I discovered that beyond this innocent hobby, there was a hidden sign that would later lead me to consider rural Mexico as the essential element to understand "what it is considered to be Mexican."
But, what does Mexican mean? This question sparked an exodus in the search for answers that took me to Eisenstein, Artaud, Castaneda, Fuentes, Herzog, Jodorowsky, Da Jandra, Girard, among others. The end of that long journey into the inner world brought me back to the countryside once again, to the eternal return, the one that our ancestors have undertaken since the beginning of time in a continuous pilgrimage. Mexico is a country in eternal reconstruction. It collapses to be built again incessantly. Reason and origin of the deep-rooted celebration of death, a persistent companion in the occurrence of this infinite cycle.
Underneath tradition, lie the deepest desires of a community. Present times must die in order to keep giving life as a spiral. A celebration is only a memory of our future dreams.