Bedtime Fairy Tales For Crocodiles

Colour, 35mm
Mexico, 2002, 100 min
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Archangel lives in the city, he is troubled by the departure of his wife and his small autistic son Gabriel, and he suffers from chronic insomnia. He receives news from his brother that their father is dying and he sets off for a desolate rural settlement to see the old man for the last time. When he arrives in his native village, to his surprise, he finds out that both father and brother are long dead. Searching for his own roots, he discovers a curse which has afflicted his family for several generations: his great grandfather, desperate to get his hands on family property, killed his own brother. Archangel also discovers why he suffers from insomnia. The story of his family and ancestors began in 1860, and was influenced by events in Mexican history, such as the reign of President Benito Juárez, the French occupation, the reformation war, the Mexican revolution and mass emigration to the United States. Archangel’s memories return to his childhood – his mother had run off with another man, and he himself had been thrown out by his father after a serious argument with his brother. He tries for a reconciliation with his wife but, in the end, is unable to escape his fate.

About the director

Ignacio Ortiz Cruz (b. 1957, Oaxaca, Mexico) initially studied medicine at Mexican National University (UNAM), later scriptwriting and filmmaking at the Film Training Centre (C.C.C.). He wrote the scripts for the films Benjamin’s Wife (1990), Married Life (1992), Deserts of Seas (1993) and No Sender (1994). In 1994 he made the short film The Man Who Doesn’t Listen to Bolero and the feature Shore of the Earth. Apart from his film work he has also completed a stage adaptation of Woody Allen’s film Interiors and he wrote the stage play Blasted based on a text by Sarah Kane. In 1995 he was awarded a grant to study film and video from the McArthur-Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1997 he became as a member of the National Filmmakers Organisation. Cruz received an award for his screenwriting work at the Nantes film festival in 1999.