Mezcal

Colour, 35 mm
Mexico, 2005, 90 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

The mythical or, more accurately, the invented town of Parián is the last stop for people who have lost their way. Several people find a refuge here and sit in a local cantina staring into glasses of mezcal as if God could be found at the bottom. They are people haunted by loss of love, guilt, pain or desire for revenge – like the armed old man Ismael, who has been on the run from his cousin’s vendetta for 50 years, or like the writer Antonio, whose wife has left him and their childless marriage, or like the owner of the cantina, whose wish to die in her sleep has so far been ignored by God. For these characters and others, Parián is the waiting room of hell, where the mezcal invites them “to drink so you see things and recount them...” In this film, themes from Bedtime Fairy Tales for Crocodiles are expanded, and some of the same actors appear (for example Ana Graham and Dagoberto Gama).

About the director

Ignacio Ortíz (b. 1957, Oaxaca, Mexico) studied medicine at the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and then film direction at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). He made his debut as a screenwriter with the animated film The Blue Dove (La paloma azul,1989), and started working with director Carlos Carrera with the screenplay for the successful film Benjamin’s Woman (La mujer de Benjamín, 1990), which has been shown on Czech Television and in which he also took an acting role. His directorial debut, the short El hombre que no escucha boleros (1992), won a CCC competition that allowed him to make the full-length feature The Edge of the Earth (La orilla de la tierra, 1993). In addition to a screenplay award at the Nantes Festival in 1999, he won the FICC Prize at Karlovy Vary 2002 for his film Bedtime Fairy Tales for Crocodiles (Cuento de hadas para dormir cocodrilos, 2001). He has also worked for theatre and radio, and currently teaches screenwriting at the CCC.