MEXICO: Mexican film director says movie "Apocalypto" bears similarities to his own movie made over a decade ago

Record ID: 304216

  • Title: MEXICO: Mexican film director says movie "Apocalypto" bears similarities to his own movie made over a decade ago
  • Date: 8th February 2007
  • Summary: CATTLET WATCHING "RETURN TO AZTLAN" ON COMPUTER
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVAA8QNMBIP2P296O8IB8LXHOQD6
  • Story Text: Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" - filmed entirely in the Yucatec Mayan language - became an international hit last year when it topped the North American box office on opening in December. But its launch was marked by controversy, with indigenous activists in Guatemala saying the film was racist in its portrayal of Mayan Indians - a charge rejected by Gibson.
    Now a Mexican film director who directed a small budget movie in 1990 on the Mayan Indians says "Apocalypto" looks set to reignite some of the controversy that has surrounded the movie. Director Juan Mora Catlett says "Apocalypto" bears a number of visual similarities to his own 1990 movie "Return to Aztlan."
    Catlett has said he does not plan to press his claims legally - but wants to ensure his own work is given due recognition.
    Catlett says the visual images appear to be more than coincidences. Catlett adopted unorthodox designs in his own 1990 film because he couldn't afford real costumes. As make-up was cheaper than cloth and no one knew exactly what Mexico's ancient warriors wore, Mora decided to paint his actors in symbolic Aztec colours.
    "With a movie for which we didn't have much of a budget - 300,000 U.S. dollars - the challenge of making the first picture of the pre-Colombian world was enormous. During it came the idea - amongst other things - that in place of designing clothing for which we didn't have the money, we would paint the actors in symbolic colours. So, for example, instead of having a leopard warrior costume, we painted the man yellow with black spots," Catlett told Reuters in an interview.
    After "Apocalypto" was released, Catlett says he noticed visual similarities between the two movies. Contacted for comment, Gibson's publicists have so far declined to comment or be interviewed on the issue.
    "When I heard about the North American movie, I was very curious and I discovered that between my first film - Aztlan - and this American movie were lots of similarities. The use of body painting was one of the them," he said.
    Gibson's thriller about an ancient Mexican conflict led ticket sales when it opened in the United States in December but has been criticized as misleadingly racist by the indigenous groups it claims to portray.
    Mora said he was highlighting his claims because of his fears that he would be accused of imitation when he brings out a sequel in March.
    "If it had only been one thing I would have thought it just a coincidence, but I asked myself: 'Was that a coincidence?' And I felt it necessary to make it public that we developed a body of work of this type 16 years ago, so that when our movie "Erendira" comes out people don't say that the Mexicans are copying the North Americans images from pre-Hispanic Mexico."
    Mora says he is only seeking acknowledgement for a makeup style that could be chosen as the world's best at February's Oscars ceremony. "Apocalypto" is one of three contenders for the Oscar for Best Make-up.
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