Another Dawn

Labor activists, cabaret singers, and corrupt politicians stalk the back streets of Mexico City in Bracho’s stylized film noir, which adds a unique revolutionary spin to that genre’s rain-soaked, tenebrous aesthetics. “An antifascist noir comparable to and in some ways superior to Casablanca”(J. Hoberman, New York Review of Books), the film stars the great Pedro Armendáriz as a union organizer on the run from government goons; a chance meeting with a former flame (Andrea Palma) leads to further danger. Cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa transforms Mexico City into a noir realm of shadows and low-key lighting, flickering with danger, love, and revolution.

—Jason Sanders