watchlist_extended

A group of innocent people is charged with human trafficking and thrown into prison. The authorities announce they’ve dealt a blow to organised crime; the public is reassured. “Pagadores” are what the victims of such procedures are called in Mexico. In her second feature documentary, Tatiana Huezo has a young mother recount her journey through hell: innocent, robbed of her liberty, she’s handed over to those for whom she’s being made to atone – in a private prison controlled by the Gulf Cartel. Tempestad is a road movie: 2000 kilometres by bus from Matamoros to Cancún, through a blustery, overcast, bleak country. Inspections by martial-looking men armed to the teeth, omnipresent fear. A country mired in an invisible war whose front lines are equally invisible. The viewer never sees the protagonist but just hears her voice. The images create space for our own imagination and help us digest the monstrosity of the account. When they create identification, they’re deceiving us, for they’re inviting us to think of other stories, other destinies. The film itself recounts one of these, the story of a circus performer who has lost her daughter. A necessary cut in a film of tremendous force. berlinale 2016

David is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients. Dedicated to his profession, he develops strong relationships with the people he cares for. But outside of work, it's a different story altogether.

A group of Mexican emigrants attempts to cross the Mexican-US border. What begins as a hopeful journey becomes a harrowing, bloody and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante and his loyal Belgian Malinois dog chase the group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous borderland. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.

San Marcos, a town in northwestern Mexico partially submerged under water because of the construction of a nearby dam, is besieged by the violence of armed groups. Nevertheless, four families refuse to leave.

2014 film

2014 film by Alonso Ruizpalacios

2013 film directed by Mariana Chenillo

An examination of Mexican drug cartels’ influence in pop culture on both sides of the border as experienced by an LA narcocorrido singer dreaming of stardom and a Juarez crime scene investigator on the front line of Mexico’s Drug War.

Aningaaq, an Inuit fisherman camping on the ice over a frozen fjord, talks through a two way radio with a dying astronaut who is stranded in space, 500 kilometers above Earth. Even though he doesn't speak English and she doesn't speak Greenlandic, they manage to have a conversation about dogs, babies, life and death.

While vacationing at a beachside resort, a single mother faces inevitable separation anxiety when her 15-year-old son — who is also her best friend — discovers magical chemistry with a girl his own age.

Young Claudia works in a supermarket where she promotes various types of products. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with severe appendicitis and meets Martha, a patient, laying in the bed next to hers.

2013 film by Amat Escalante

Valentin is Acapulco's resident playboy, until a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep and him heading with her out of Mexico.

A group of Central-American teen-agers depart from the slums of Guatemala City escaping poverty and violence, towards the promised land of California.

Tells the "riches to rags" story of the Nobles, three upper-class twenty-somethings that appear to have no limits to their checkbooks, and no direction in their lives. Until one day, their father tries to teach them a lesson by staging a financial scandal that forces the whole family to escape to an old house in the poor side of town, and leads the "kids" to do what they haven't done before: get jobs.

To care for her dying mother, Chayo returns to the village where she once left her husband and children behind. Despite being surrounded by beauty and love, Chayo silently cherishes her own desires. A film about mothers and family, life and death, obligations and dreams.

2012 drama film directed by Carlos Reygadas

Alejandra and her dad Roberto have just moved to town. She is new at school, he has a new job. Starting over is sometimes complicated when you have left so much behind.

A story of love of money and power. A story of courage and bravery. It is the life of José Fierro, a man who faces the consequences of his acts when he decides to go all out; of his wife Ana Luisa, who wants to experience love and eroticism beyond what is permitted. A brave movie that reflects the best and the worst of humans, but is also a tragicomedy (as is life), full of humor, hope and self-sacrifice: the reflection of a country undergoing a permanent financial crisis, produced by the Tequila effect, but which has the virtue of not letting itself be defeated.

Mexico City. 2002, 2006, 2010. A cop. A hostage. A wife. Corruption, violence, vengeance. Three destinies, during 30 days, during three Soccer World Cups. Three ways to fight in order to survive.