As the son of a cartel sicario, Sujo’s fate seemed determined before he was born. Dragged along on his father’s assignments, Sujo becomes the next target after his father is murdered by his own cartel. To protect him, his aunt raises him in a remote shack in the Michoacán countryside, however despite the isolation, the threat of the outlaw world remains. As a teenager, Sujo is sent to Mexico City to escape his father’s dangerous legacy, but he must ultimately decide whether to follow in his father’s footsteps or break free from the cycle of violence and forge a new path.

This is the second collaboration from writer/directors Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez (Identifying Features) and continues the exploration into this humanitarian crisis, interrogating the possibility of escaping a life of crime. Eschewing graphic scenes of brutality in favour of a foreboding yet dreamlike undertone, they track not the war on drugs but its ripple effects on those unwillingly caught up in the maelstrom.

Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival 2024.

Screening with short film TAYAL FOREST CLUB (2023 | Laha Mebow | Taiwan | UC15+).

 

“Ancestors! We’ve gotten stuck here. Can you help us find the way home?” pleads Yukan, an Atayal teenager lost in the forests of his forefathers. Taiwan’s first Indigenous female film director Laha Mebow (Gaga) shares a coming-of-age tale full of Tayal characters, settings, and symbols, about the complexities arising from her community’s interactions with contemporary society.

TRAILER: https://www.reciprocity.org/films/tayal-forest-club