Viva el cine mexicano!

EMBASSY OF MEXICO
Wellington, New Zealand

MEDIA RELEASE – For immediate release

12 February 2015
Viva el cine mexicano!

The quality and versatility of the Mexican film industry have been recognised with the inclusion of eleven Mexican movies in the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

The success of Mexican film directors has been well documented over the last few years, most recently with the release of Birdman by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. This follows hard on the heels of the great acclaim received by Alfonso Cuarón’s 2014 movie Gravity and recalls the moment in 2007 when these two directors were reunited at the Oscars with the third of the so-called ‘Three Amigos’, Guillermo del Toro, after their films (Babel, Children of Men, and Pan’s Labyrinth, respectively) gained a total of sixteen nominations for the golden statuette.

The pattern continues with Mexico’s strong representation this year at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, better known as the Berlinale, which is currently underway in the German capital. One of the most prestigious events on the international film calendar, it will feature 10 new Mexican productions as well as the classic 1950 movie Cuatro contra el mundo / Four Against the World, a Mexican film noir from the Golden Age, directed by Alejandro Galindo.

The new films, some of which are co-productions with other countries, include Mexican filmmaker Nicolas Echevarria’s latest outing, Eco de la montaña / Echo of the Mountain, an empathetic and poetic documentary exploring the life of great Huichol artist Santos de la Torre, the creator of a magnificent mural in Paris at the Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre metro station who, nonetheless, lives in virtual anonymity in the Western Sierra Madre.

Also featured is Eisenstein en Guanajuato / Eisenstein in Guanajuato, a co-production of the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Mexico, set in 1931. The film follows Battleship Potemkin director Sergei Eisenstein as he travels there to shoot Que Viva Mexico. Under increasing pressure to return to Stalinist Russia, Eisenstein is fascinated by his discovery of Mexican culture and particularly the way it deals with the theme of death.

Meanwhile, both La maldad / Evilness (2015), by Mexican director Joshua Gil, and Violencia / Violence (2015) – a Mexican-Colombian co-production – will have their world premieres in Berlin.

ENDS

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