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“In Mexico, everyone is corrupt,” said director Daniel Gruener.

Clara Sánchez

Morirse en Domingo was part of the official selection at the San Sebastián Film Festival.

Silverio Palacios, who plays the part of Joaquin, worked as an embalmer in a funeral parlor in order to mould his character’s personality. “There, I meet Tripas and Nene, two young, 18-year-old guys who work really hard because people die every day, I even help them a little.”

Maya Zapata plays the part of Ana, a young girl embarrassed by her father’s job. To prepare for the role, Zapata slept a few hours in a coffin: “I went to a funeral parlor at midday and asked the caretaker to let me sleep for a while in one of the coffins. I wanted to understand Ofelia’s relationship with death, and make her seem as if she was dead, detached from reality.”

Humberto Busto said that the relationship between Carlos and Ana is “that of two human beings who recognize each other’s needs profoundly, and have an immense need to love, they belong to different worlds but have a lot in common.’

Gruener, who also directed Sobrenatural, said his film was based in reality. Even so, he didn’t want to it to have an accusative tone. “I didn’t want to make a political film, I just wanted to tell a story. It’s difficult to see a Mexican film that doesn’t talk about corruption, everyone is corrupt, we like to take the easy way out; we lie shamelessly. Politicians aren’t the only ones that are corrupt, it’s everyone, and we need to take responsibility for it.”

The filmmaker added that this project allowed him to realize how funeral rites were changing: ¨Modern societies cremate their dead. As a Jew, I want to be buried under the earth.¨