Nicolás Pereda Selects: Recent Films from Mexico

March 20–May 2, 2024

Impressed with the wealth of great Mexican movies in the last decade, we asked filmmaker Nicolás Pereda to select some of his favorites, along with a program of his own short films, to screen at BAMPFA this spring.

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The Echo
Prayers for the Stolen
The Palace
Everything Else
Tótem

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Past Films

The Echo
Tatiana Huezo
Mexico, Germany, 2023
Wednesday, March 20 7 PM
Tatiana Huezo and Nicolás Pereda in Conversation
The cycles of life, seasons, and harvesting anchor this luminous look at multigenerational family life in a remote Puebla community. “An intimate, immersive portrait of a way of life” (Hollywood Reporter).
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Prayers for the Stolen
Tatiana Huezo
Mexico, Germany, Brazil, 2021
Friday, March 22 7 PM
Tatiana Huezo in Person
Three young girls come of age in a remote Mexican highland village scarred by cartel violence in this powerful drama, Mexico’s official Oscar submission in 2021. “A masterfully evocative portrait of coming of age in the shadow of Mexico’s narco wars” (Little White Lies).
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Tótem
Lila Avilés
Mexico, Denmark, France, 2023
Saturday, March 30 7 PM
A family’s preparation for a birthday party slowly dissolves into something far more revealing in Lila Avilés’s Berlinale prizewinner, seen through the eyes of a young girl. “An exquisite Mexican family drama of joy and heartbreak . . . a minutely observed ensemble piece” (Guardian).
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Short Films by Nicolás Pereda
Saturday, April 6 7 PM
Nicolás Pereda in Person
One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, Nicolás Pereda presents four short films at the permeable border of documentary and fiction that explore the everyday through thoughtful, elliptical narratives.
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Everything Else
Natalia Almada
Mexico, United States, 2016
Friday, April 12 7 PM
Natalia Almada and Nicolás Pereda in Conversation
Academy Award–nominated actress Adriana Barraza stars as a solitary Mexico City bureaucrat whose daily routines are tracked with Jeanne Dielman–like focus in this austere tale of isolation and grief. “Almada has a documentarian’s eye for how truth reveals itself in seemingly nondescript details” (48 Hills).
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Dos Estaciones
Juan Pablo González
Mexico, 2022
Thursday, April 18 7 PM
Introduced by Nicolás Pereda
A strong-willed businesswoman fights to keep her tequila factory—and her community—afloat in the face of foreign buyouts and natural disasters in this intense drama, set in the Jalisco hinterlands. “Visually arresting, a vivid, textured, altogether unexpected world” (New York Times).
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Tragic Jungle
Yulene Olaizola
Mexico, France, Colombia, 2021
Thursday, May 2 7 PM
A young Belizean woman is both prize and doom, prisoner and possible demon, for a group of Indigenous laborers in this mystic, minimalist tale of colonialism, greed, and desire, set in the 1920s, deep in the Mayan jungles. “Lushly made, highly enigmatic” (Hollywood Reporter).
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Nicolás Pereda Selects: Recent Films from Mexico

March 20–May 2, 2024

One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, and a professor of film and media at UC Berkeley, Nicolás Pereda is a thoughtful observer and participant in Mexico’s independent film scene. Impressed with the wealth of great Mexican movies in the last decade, we asked Pereda to select some of his favorites, along with a program of his own short films, to screen at BAMPFA this spring.

Of his selection, Pereda writes: “These films exemplify a kind of Mexican cinema committed to subtle formal experimentation, crafting distinctive structures and rhythms that remain unaffected by the constraints of commercial cinema. Critically engaging with broader social, political, or environmental issues, each of these films simultaneously delves into the nuanced interior lives of their characters. Notably, every film but one, are directed by women, although this wasn’t a deliberate choice. Maybe, the historical dominance of men in the Mexican film industry has resulted in derivative works rooted in industrial conventions, and it is perhaps at the periphery of this industry that novel approaches to the medium can flourish, allowing for a diversity of voices and perspectives to shape the cinematic landscape.”

An audience favorite at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 2023, Lila Avilés’s Tótem uses an observational approach and child’s-eye view to capture a day in the life of a family struggling with grief as they prepare for the birthday party of a family member who is dying of cancer. Two new films from Tatiana Huezo—one documentary, The Echo, and one fiction, Prayers for the Stolen—chronicle the lives of girls and women in remote rural communities. Huezo will be in person to present both of her films. In Yulene Olaizola’s mysterious and mythic Tragic Jungle, a young woman escapes the unwanted attention of an old settler by fleeing into and joining forces with the wilderness. Natalia Almada made documentaries before Everything Else, and she applies the restrained cinematic rigor she honed in her nonfiction work to depict the gradual emotional shift of an alienated Mexico City bureaucrat. One of the most ubiquitous and compelling performers in Mexican cinema today, Teresa Sánchez (who also appears in Avilés’s Tótem and Pereda’s The Palace), stars as a proud but struggling independent tequila factory owner in Juan Pablo González’s moving and suspenseful Dos Estaciones.

—Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator

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Tatiana Huezo’s visit is made possible with the support of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Endowment. Thanks to Brian Belovarac, Janus Films; Bob Hunter, Icarus Films; Victor Garcia, Netflix; Valentina Bronzini, The Match Factory; Tom Sveen, Cinema Guild; Yulene Olaizola, Rubén Imaz, Malacosa Cine.

Nicolás Pereda Selects: Recent Films from Mexico

March 20–May 2, 2024

Past Films

The Echo

Prayers for the Stolen

Tótem

Short Films by Nicolás Pereda

Everything Else

Dos Estaciones

Tragic Jungle