Streaming giant Netflix has added a controversial film to its catalogue, with some great features. More than three hours The director Luis Estrada turns it into a satire Mexican, in which he also alludes to the President of that country, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. OhHooray Mexico! is now available on the platform, with a story narrated by the protagonists Damián Alcázar, Joaquín Cosío, Alfonso Herrera and Ana de la Reguera.
With this film, Estrada marked his return to cinema, since it was first released in 3,000 theaters in Mexico and the United States before reaching Netflix. The director is known for his earlier socio-critical forays in which he uncovers (and dramatizes) several very important cases in Mexican politics. His other works include Herod’s Law (1999), The Perfect Dictatorship (2014) and Hell (2010).
The story of ¡Qué Viva México! Its central axis is Pancho Reyes, an upper-middle-class man of humble origins and ambitious ideals. After receiving the news of his grandfather’s death, the only relative with whom he had a strong bond, and after repeated urging from his father, He returns to his hometown of La Prosperidad with his family. Inheritance brings out the worst in everyone. The plot also alludes to the current politics of the so-called “4T” or “Fourth Transformation”, with links in various posters and phrases.
All characters represent a role in society, including the fifi (an adjective popularized by the current president to describe those with more economic resources), the poor, and also the “vigilantes”. “Each one has a symbolic charge”Estrada explained in an interview with El País.
Long live Mexico!, the Luis Estrada movie that came to NetflixSony
In this way the film is a metaphor. The viewer cannot expect a happy ending as the filmmaker brings up the lack of them for his own residents. He questions his values, desires, and the impossibility of breaking the family bond that “little hell we all have”as Estrada himself defines, who also sees his work as satire, with biting humor and complex situations that depict the Mexican’s idiosyncrasy.
Even before it was released on the streaming platform, the film was heavily criticized, including by López Obrador. In late March, he referred to it as a “churro” that only conservatives can enjoy. “It’s a good vibes filmmaker film, good vibes progressive film, but it’s meant for conservative consumption,” he said during a morning news conference. Churro is a term that refers to inferior or nonsensical production.
The statements were answered by the filmmaker, He regretted that the President was more concerned with the satirical and fictional film, but clarified that it wasn’t necessarily about him, but rather a way of portraying Mexicans on the big screen.
Long live Mexico!, the Luis Estrada movie that came to NetflixSony
“I think the President became a film critic Also, I think that without having seen the film, he speaks worse about it than about me, with the countless adjectives he gave me in the morning,” he pointed out. “The film is not about the President, it’s about Mexicanness, about ourselves, in a tone of satire, caricature, farce, a bit to offer us a very cruel mirror and whoever wants to see themselves in it, he should see it.” .
The arrival of Qué viva México! on the streaming platform was not without controversy, as the director bought the distribution rights in November last year, just one day before the premiere and I broke up with Netflix and wanted it to have a theatrical release. “Watching a film is like going to church: you meet different people and there is communication,” he confirmed to El País.
He also emphasized his goal: “I’m not making the film for critics or journalists, I’m making it for the general public because I’m trying to make popular cinema.” Sometimes I’ve managed to do it with greater success, sometimes not, but I think still that you can see the cinema better in the cinema.”
Long live Mexico!, the Luis Estrada movie that came to NetflixSony
The film, which lasts just over three hours, can also be viewed on the platform from Argentina and the United States, where it began to position itself among the most watched.
THE NATION