- Title: VARIOUS: Berlin Film Festival highlights the Mexican revolution
- Date: 18th February 2010
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY, (FEBRUARY 15,2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF REVOLUCION'S ALVARADO, RODRIGO GARCIA, SAYING: "I was fascinated about this part of L.A. that is very American but is now very populated by Mexican people and Mexican businesses. And I thought, where is the revolution in all this, what have these Mexicans that now live in L.A. brought? Is the
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- Story Text: One hundred years after the Mexican revolution, ten young Mexican directors proudly walked the red carpet at the 60th Berlin film festival for the world premiere of Revolucion on Monday (February 15), an arrangement of 10 short films around the subject of their country's revolution.
The Mexican revolution began one hundred years ago with the overthrow of the country's dictatorial President Porfirio DÃaz. "Revolucion" is a portmanteau film in which the directors look back at the violent upheaval that was to bring dramatic changes to the country. In his film, 30/30, Rodrigo Plá observes commemorative events and local politicians speeches.
"There are a million things on the subject (revolution), like the separation of church and state, those two are moving closer together again," Pla told Reuters. "We have child labour today even though it was abolished with the revolution. Everything is running backwards. One starts to feel debased. I feel debased when I watch how politicians use the situation. We wanted to show with this film how politicians use this wrong interpretation of the revolution to gain power. It is all just like a photograph and the guy in the picture is the influential leader there to fill the emptiness the revolution has left behind."
In "El Cura Nicolas Colgado" by Amat Escalanate, a boy and a girl come across a priest hanging in a tree. In "Este es mi Reino", Carlos Reygadas describes a group of proud Mexicans who invite their foreign friends to join them for a celebration in the country. In "La Tienda de Raya" Mariana Chenillo reminds us that, even today, workers are sometimes paid in coupons, which, just as in pre-revolutionary Mexico, they can only redeem in shops owned by their employers. Patricia Riggen's film, "Lindo y Querido", revolves around an American's dying wish to be buried in the land he was once forced to leave. The titular protagonist LUCIO in Gael GarcÃa Bernal's film is enlightened by his cousin, Omar, as to the sometimes contradictory meanings of certain national symbols.
"I believe these children will not start a revolution, they are rather experiencing an evolution," said Bernal. "They interpret everything anew and are realising that they don't need those old pictures of the evolution anymore. The cousin, for example, is saying in the movie that he does not believe in the old pictures anymore. And Lucio realises that the old pictures aren't real anymore. The symbols of the fatherland no longer in the national flag or the national anthem or in the poems of the grandparents. The feeling of fatherland is within the interpretation of each individual and within the social context if the society he lives in."
Daniel has an unpleasant altercation with his wife in Diego Luna's "Pacifico". He winds up at the beach where he begins to realise that he can only fulfill his dreams by being at home with his family. In "R-100" by Gerardo Narango, two workers try to run away from their past; Rodrigo GarcÃa has the ghosts of deceased revolutionaries pay a visit to Los Angeles in "LA 7th y Alvarado", and in "La Bienvenida", Fernando Eimbcke portrays a village that awaits the arrival of a special guest. "Revulocion" - ten stories commemorating the centenary of the Mexican Revolution had its world premiere at the 60th Berlinale. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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