Skip to main content

Death to Summer, by Sebastián Padilla, story of youthful love among violence in Monterrey

Death to Summer (2019), Sebastián Padilla’s directorial debut, was presented in a press screening at the 17th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) as part of the Mexican Feature Film Section in the presence of producer and screenwriter Alexandro Aldrete, and actors Ana Valeria Becerril, Joshua Okamoto, Yojath Okamoto, Gabriel Nuncio and Diego Lavalle.

The film is a coming of age that chronicles the days of Dante among fabrics, skateboards and dead bodies, when the only thing he cares about is the death metal band he formed with his best friends. Dante’s brother is in a coma, and when his girlfriend arrives, this causes chaos, confusion and hope.

Yojath Okamoto, Ana Valeria Becerril, Joshua Okamoto Yojath Okamoto, Ana Valeria Becerril, Joshua Okamoto

A separate case is that this 2019 there was a participating majority of films from Monterrey in the Official Selection of the FICM: “I wouldn’t say this is a coincidence, rather, I feel that when we began doing this in our city, dreaming of making films was not an option; thanks to what happened this year, hopefully there is more. We know that everything outside Mexico City is a microbe, but Monterrey is a huge city, larger than Barcelona or Amsterdam, so we have to think about what’s happening that Monterrey isn’t here every year,” commented Sebastián Padilla.

Diego Lavalle, actor who plays Jorge (bass player in the metal band), talked about the good relationship there was among the cast, direction and production: “This allowed us to do everything naturally, Valeria and I are from Coapa . (CDMX), Joshua and Yojath are brothers, so we are people who speak the same language. We had a lot of freedom to represent the characters.”

And although for some viewers the film Death to Summer may have several possible endings, the one that managed to capture the whole team on the screen was the way they wanted to close this love story.