10 · 19 · 24

SUJO, by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, at the 22nd FICM: The Alternatives to Violence

Gustavo R. Gallardo

With a reflection on the causes that lead young people in Mexico to join criminal groups, a press conference was held for the film Sujo, part of the Official Selection of the 22nd edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

 

Sujo, a joint work by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez. The movie explores moral delusions through Sujo, a Mexican boy whose father is murdered for his complicity in organized crime, prompting him to consider following in his footsteps or breaking the pattern.

 

“The idea for Sujo was born while we were doing field research for Sin señas particulares (2020),” filmmaker Fernanda Valadez said, “I was very moved by the stories of the kids opting for migration and forced displacement.”

 

The film, starring Karla Garrido, Juan Jesús Varela, Jairo Hernández, Alexis Varela, Kevin Aguilar, Yadira Pérez and Sandra Lorenzano, continues a trend in Latin American cinema of exposing the harsh reality experienced by millions of people as a result of violence and insecurity.

 

In this case, it is the motivations that can lead a child or young person to choose violence as a way of life in a Mexico that since 2006 has experienced an increase in homicides, the rise of organized criminal groups and a romanticization of crime.

 

“It was important to talk about the orphans in this country, about so many victims of violence. The numbers are very unsettling, we are talking about 1.6 million children orphaned as a result of violence in Mexico,” explains filmmaker Astrid Rondero.

 

Sujo, part of the official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2024 and selected to represent Mexico at the Oscars. The film takes place in the state of Michoacán and presents the struggles of growing up amid violence in four chapters.

 

While there has been some discussion about Sujo being presented as a hopeful vision of how a young person can get out of that environment, Fernanda Valadez has a different opinion.

 

“There is a humanitarian crisis but also a crisis of perspectives for a whole generation that was already born in this context [of violence],” she says. “There are kids who were born into this crisis of violence and we wanted to know what concrete situations can lead a kid to escape from this pattern,” she added.

 

Juan Jesús Valera, who plays Sujo, said that he explored the character in a way he could understand that where you come from doesn't matter, at least in the sense that it doesn't determine whether you are violent or not; what matters is where you are going.