Norteado offers a unique view on immigration

"Morelia and the festival mean a lot to me. The first year I presented my
work XV en Zaachila and now I have this other project," said Pérez Cano, the
director.

The filmmaker explained that Edgar San Juan showed him his script. "I made
some comments and then he asked me to direct it. I accepted but I asked him for
complete artistic freedom. It took us six months to agree on some issues but we
finally filmed it in July. Afterwards we won three awards in Cine en
Construcción in the San Sebastian Film Festival (Industry award, TVE award and
Casa de America award).

Norteado will be distributed in Mexico by Mantarraya and in Spain by Alta
Films. "It shows in an amusing way the journey that this immigrant has to
endure. There are many elements that permit us to step back from drama. We
thought that Mexicans enjoy laughing about their own tragedies. We were very
careful not to make a ridiculous film."

Both actors talked about the way in which their characters behaved. Harold
Torres said, "We were in a town in Oaxaca. Rigoberto is from there and I studied
the way people eat, how they bow their head. When we were filming I had nice
experiences with people. They thought we were trying to cross the border as well
and told us that if we had any problem we should tell them so they could help
us. I didn´t want to see myself on screen as the actor who tried to be like this
character Andres. I wanted to be him, like in a documentary." 

One of the most interesting parts of the film is when they develop the
strategy Andres will use to cross the border. “We checked many facts. We wanted
to pay tribute to Mexican ingenuity. This technique was like the Trojan Horse.
Once we had written the script, we read an article in a newspaper about a man
who tried to cross while hiding inside the seat of a SUV. He was caught and
brought back to Mexico, but he was famous because of what he did.”

Translated by Lorena Villa Parkman