Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) performs a Guatemalan insurgent preventing towards the army dictatorship in Mexico 86 from Guatemalan director César Díaz (Our Moms), whose world premiere on the Swiss city’s Piazza Grande is among the many highlights of the Locarno Movie Competition schedule on Saturday.
“1976. Loss of life threats power Maria, a Guatemalan insurgent activist preventing towards the corrupt army dictatorship, to flee to Mexico, abandoning her son,” a plot description explains. “10 years later, when he involves dwell along with her, she is compelled to decide on between her duties as a mom and persevering with her revolutionary activism.”
The movie’s title refers back to the 1986 soccer World Cup in Mexico, though it’s only briefly referred to in a couple of scenes.
Throughout a Locarno press convention for the movie on Saturday, Bejo shared how making the movie helped her higher perceive her household historical past and her dad and mom who left Argentina underneath the dictatorship to settle in France.
“For me, once I met César and he provided me this movie, it was a method of speaking about my household, however with out speaking about my household,” the star advised reporters. “I come from a household who fled the dictatorship in Argentina. And my dad and mom didn’t inform me a lot. There are numerous secrets and techniques, many myths.” She continued: “After I was 20, once I was 30, even once I was 40, I needed solutions. And I used to be very pissed off with my dad and mom for not giving me solutions.”
Her dad and mom used to not say a lot past telling her: “We left Argentina, you’re fortunate to dwell in France. What occurred earlier than not exists.” By starring in Mexico 86, Bejo stated she hoped to have the ability to get some solutions to her questions.
‘Mexico 86’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition
Issues performed out in a different way although. “The truth is, the other occurred,” the actress stated. “I made the movie and calmed down. I don’t want any extra solutions. I realized from César’s movie that now we have the suitable to be silent. We’ve the suitable to have secrets and techniques. There are some individuals who communicate and others who don’t communicate. And we must always not choose them.”
Bejo additionally talked about that she and the director share a lot respect for freedom fighters. Díaz’s 2019 Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Our Moms additionally handled the violent repercussions of the battle in his nation. The brand new movie relies on his personal childhood. “Making this movie meant confronting the armed battle waged by my mom and the actual fact of her being a mom,” explains the director in a word on the Locarno pageant web site. “Activists dedicate their lives to societal transformation, however there’s typically no room to meet their roles as dad and mom.”
Bejo on Friday remembered her first lunch with Díaz. “He advised me: ‘I’ve two youngsters and I might by no means go away them. I don’t perceive why my mom might do this. However fortunately she did’.” And he or she added: “Fortuitously, there are individuals like that, men and women who’ve the energy to place, let’s say, their instincts apart a little bit for a trigger that’s larger.”
Concluded the star: “If César’s mom hadn’t carried out it, if numerous individuals hadn’t carried out it, in the event that they weren’t crushed for noble concepts, for democracy, I don’t know what world we might dwell in at the moment.”
Talking of the presence, Bejo on Friday additionally expressed concern concerning the state of the world. “As we speak, our democracy is underneath extreme assault in lots of nations,” she advised the press convention. “What are we going to do to defend it? Who’s going to defend it? Will we dare to defend it? In a world so self-centered and egocentric, will we be capable to do it?”
‘Mexico 86’
Courtesy of Locarno Movie Competition