- Mexico
POST TENEBRAS LUX
Synopsis
Juan (Adolfo Jiménez Castro) and Natalia (Nathalia Acevedo) have moved with their small children Eleazar and Rut from the city to the Mexican countryside, into a house their wealth affords them, amid a rural population whose life follows different rules. The two worlds touch through labourers, neighbours, a dog, violence, and the film asks whether they complement or annihilate each other. In between stand images that resist classification: a child alone in a field during a thunderstorm, a red creature with a toolbox that walks through the house at night. “Post Tenebras Lux” by Carlos Reygadas, Mexico 2012, is half autobiographical.
Reygadas tells the story in fragments, jumping between times and places; the edges of the frame are distorted for long stretches, as though seen through old glass. The title is Latin for “After darkness, light”. The film screened in competition at Cannes and won the award for best director. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2012.
Festival
Shown at the 2012 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
