FICM premieres Biutiful in Mexico

Clara Sánchez translated by Cindy Hawes

The director, whose film was selected to participate in the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, added, “In general I like to support festivals very much, especially the one in Morelia, because they provide unique spaces to see interesting films. I think that [FICM] is an ideal platform to present the film for the first time in Mexico.”

Biutiful, which will represent Mexico at the next Oscars, is a Mexico-Spain co-production, starring Javier Bardem, winner of the Palme ‘dOr for Best Actor in the film. González Iñárritu and Armando Bo wrote the screenplay.

The director’s description of his film, which appeared in the Cannes Festival catalog, stated:

"Biutiful is the story of Uxbal.
Devoted father. Tormented lover.
Mystified son. Underground businessman.
Friend of the disposed. Ghost seeker. Spiritual sensitive.
A survivor at the invisible margins in today’s Barcelona.
Uxbal, sensing the danger of death, tries to reconcile with love and save his children, as he tries to save himself.
Uxbal’s story is simple: just one of the complex realities that we all live in today."

The film is a painful journey alongside Uxbal as he travels in a world where black and white don’t exist -- only grey, in a wide range of tones, through which endearing individuals emerge as they use their tenacity to escape a tragic destiny. The experience is frightening, but addictive. There is no way to escape this horrendous nightmare, which paradoxically is called Biutiful.

The director, a graduate in communications from the Universidad Iberoamericana, began his career in radio as a director, producer and disc jockey at WFM. He also promoted rock concerts in Mexico for Nacha Pp, Radio Futura, Stereo Soda and Rod Stewart. He later worked at Televisa as creative director. Before directing Amores Perros, his first film, he arranged the music for six feature films.

Alejandro González Iñárritu at a conference
during the 5th FICM
Photo: Pauolo Vidales/Imagen Latente

“El Negro,” as his friends call him, participated with the short  Darkness in 11’09”01, a collective film in which 11 directors (including Ken Loach, Sean Penn, Shohei Imamura, Amos Gitaï, Samira Majmalbaf and Mira Nair) each presented a short film about the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center. In this work, González Iñárritu revealed his consummate ability to build a story through sound.

In 2000, he surprised the world with Amores Perros -- the way he presented three interwoven stories with an impeccable visual narrative. A year later, he wrote, produced and directed Powder Keg. The short formed part of the publicity for BMW and included directors like Wong Kar-Wai, Ang Lee, Guy Richie and John Frankenheimer. It won the "Grand Prix Cyber Lion" at Cannes 2002, in addition to receiving three Premios Clio.
He later directed 21 gramos (2003), starrng Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, and Babel (2006), with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet, both co-written with Guillermo Arriaga.

González Iñárritu has won four awards at Cannes: in 2000, he received the Critics’ Week Grand Prize for Amores Perros and the Young Critics prize; six years later, he participated for the first time in the Official Selection of the Cannes Festival with Babel, which won an award for Best Director and the prize by the Ecumenical Jury.

In 2007, he took part in a collective project again. This time with Anna, a short that, together with 32 others, made up the film Cada quien su cine – presented at the 5th FICM – with which the Cannes International Film Festival celebrated its 60 year anniversary. The feature film presented stories by well-known directors, including Roman Polanski, Manoel de Oliveira, Theo Angelopoulos, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre y Luc Dardenne, Atom Egoyan, Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Ken Loach, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wai Wong Kar and Yimou Zhang.

González Iñárritu’s films are characterized by their multifaceted stories. The beauty of the narrative discourse revolves around a complex visual presentation that turns each protagonist’s story upside down  -- from a loud, infuriating crash in a series of misfortunes to the magic that emanates from an encouner with death, a theme that has obsessed the director throughout his work.

The 8th Morelia International Film Festival is pleased to inaugurate this edition with the most recent film by this distinguished Mexican director.