The film Sujo by Mexican directors Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez was announced this Friday at the Sundance Festival in the United States as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic (International Dramatic Film) category, one of the most outstanding and globally prestigious prize that has been recognizing and rewarding the cinematic work of independent filmmakers for almost 50 years. The film, a co-production with the USA and France, beat nine other films from China, Norway, Brazil and the United Kingdom, among others, in the competition category.
The film's synopsis states that when a cartel hitman is killed, he leaves behind Sujo, his beloved four-year-old son. The shadow of violence surrounds him at every stage of his life in the remote Mexican countryside. As he grows into a man, Sujo realizes that fulfilling his father's destiny may be inevitable. In its decision, the competition jury highlighted the film's “impressive creation of its own unique cinematographic vocabulary: that of a childhood marked by violence but protected by the embrace of women, strangers and family alike.”
“The story was brought to life through exceptional cinematography that captured a lyrical intensity of darkness, nature and ambition. “The filmmakers have presented us with an as yet unpublished story whose originality and power are deeply moving and transcendent,” the jury continued.
The film is co-directed by Valadez (“Without Special Signs”) and Astrid Rondero (“The Darkest Days of Us”) and stars Juan Jesús Varela, who plays the main character. According to the Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Mexican Cinema in Mexico City (PROCINE), the rest of the cast consists mostly of natural actors and a few professionals such as Carla Garrido and author and professor Sandra Lorenzano.
Rondero explains that Sujo's idea is not to glorify someone who emerged from organized crime, a sensitive issue for Mexican society, but quite the opposite. “As the humanitarian crisis deepens in Mexico due to drug cartel violence, we ask ourselves who is a 'good' orphan and who is a 'bad' orphan. Who deserves a bright future and who doesn't. So Sujo is an exploration of that. It is a portrait of this young man's life, his hopes, dreams and fears. “It’s about who he wants to be, but it’s also like a story about how he comes to terms with who he is,” the co-director explains in a conversation during the festival.
According to PROCINE, the story takes place in Tierra Caliente, Michoacán, a city where drug traffickers have total control and power; However, filming took place in Guanajuato. Although much of the plot centers on violence, the central axis is self-discovery in a tortured world.
Sujo's premiere in Utah, where the festival is held, marked the creative couple's return to Sundance. Rondero and Valadez, who have worked together for 15 years, released Sin Señas Particulares back in 2020, the year it won the Audience Award for International Drama Film and the Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay. The film, which also received top recognition at the Morelia Film Festival, addressed the mass truck kidnappings and organized crime recruitment, as well as the open wounds of victims of violence in Mexico. “Sujo” is the first time that both of them share the director’s chair.
Another Mexican was also honored at the festival. Director Carla Gutiérrez won the Jonathan Oppenheim Award for Best Editing for the documentary FRIDA, in which the Mexican artist tells her life for the first time in her own words, drawn from her diary and revealing letters, essays and printed interviews. and brought vividly to life through lyrical animations inspired by his unforgettable artworks.
“This movie [FRIDA] “The film was directed with a strong and clear vision, and its imaginative editing combines archival footage, photographs, images and animations to bring that vision to life,” said the jury’s decision recognizing Gutiérrez. The premiere of the non-fiction film is planned for March on the Amazon Prime Video platform.
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