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Jorge Ramírez's LAS MUTACIONES Presented at the 22nd FICM

Ariadna Coronel

As part of the Mexican premieres at the 22nd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), Las mutaciones (dir. Jorge Ramírez, 2024), a film based on the novel by Mexican Jorge Comensal, was presented. The director, cast and writer attended the screening.

After a six-year absence from film, director Jorge Ramírez returned with a work dedicated to his brother, Eduardo, who died while shooting the film.

At the end of the screening, a dialogue was opened between the film crew and the audience. The director delved into his reasons for wanting to address issues related to human communication in his films. “I think this is one of the great problems we human beings have: communication. There are always problems of communication, language, or understanding. I feel that my films also have this cultural expression [...] When I read Jorge Comensal's novel I understood these two worlds in the novel.”

The story of Las mutaciones centers on Raúl, a lawyer who undergoes emergency surgery and loses his tongue and speech. This changes his life and his relationship with his wife and teenage children. Elodia, the maid, gives him a talking parrot that only knows how to say dirty words. The parrot becomes Raul's imaginary interlocutor and Elodia his nurse sui generis, who gives more weight to miraculous cures and prayers than to the possibilities of medicine.

Actress Mónica del Carmen, who plays Elodia in the film, spoke about her perspective on her character. For her, the role she played is "honoring those people who are in our homes, who become the nurses of people who are sick, who give everything they have”.

She also emphasized that what happens to her character to get to Raul reminds her of the extremely painful stories of violence and abuse suffered by several women. “Stories of abusive fathers and such violent things and yet they are standing up. These women who raise families are extremely strong and powerful,” said Mónica del Carmen.

Tony Dalton, star of the film, shared the reflections that the film left him with since they were filming: “It's about enjoying life and at any moment anything can happen and it's all over. And there are people you have to be grateful to because they are helping you, they are by your side and for whatever reason they are there.”