02 · 19 · 16

Tempestad by Tatiana Huezo a success at the Berlinale

The Mexican documentary Tempestad, directed by Tatiana Huezo and part of Impulso Morelia in 2015, has received an extremely positive critical response following its screening in the Forum section of the 66th Berlinale. The film also received a Special Mention from the Jury of the Caligari Award for cinematographic innovation, granted by the Film Dienst magazine. Congratulations to the whole Tempestad team for this wonderful recognition of your work!

Tempestad shows a woman arriving to a prison dominated by a cartel of drug-traffickers while, in a separate story, another woman loses her daughter. Using images of a trip across Mexico, Tempestad connects the two women’s stories to offer up a portrait of a country in the grips of organized crime.

Below, we pull together a selection of responses from the international press following the screening of Tempestad at the Berlinale:

"It would take a heart of stone not to be moved."
The Upcoming (UK)

"The visual beauty of this exceptional documentary derives its nobility from the despair of its heartbreaking story in two parts [...] The staging has this rare and precious gift of turning ordinary takes into cinematic poetry, each more expressive and vigorous than the other."
Critique Film (France)

"Tatiana Huezo directs with a steady pulse an approximation of the most honestly brutal and subtle human cruelty."
El Antepenultimo Mohicano (Spain)

"According to standard documentary criteria, Tempestad is a very audacious film. With its views of streets, landscapes and nameless co-travelers, the film almost visually explodes and creates its Impact through the very things it does not show."
Tagesspiegel (Germany)

"(Tempestad) shows images of today's Mexico, police checkpoints, roadblocks, a bus trip across the country. Terror is generated in the space between the precise narrative voices and the images of a normalit that seems completely absurd in this context."
Die Zeit (Germany)

"The director’s assured vision makes Tempestad so much more than a stylish creative exercise ... Without hint of hyperbole, a spellbinding film. Not one to miss."
Exberliner (English Language Magazine of Berlin)

"(Tempestad is) powerful ... hits you in the gut ... absolutely worth seeing."
Cultureshock (Germany)

"The Forum section of the Berlinale is where many look to find exciting new voices or more adventurous forays into what cinema can do away from the red carpet requirements of the festival's headline competition section. The Mexican documentary Tempestad is a prime example of what makes the Forum rewarding…an ambitious movie which deserves to be seen."
Mubi (UK)