Displaying items by tag: Tatiana Huego

NOCHE DE FUEGO/ PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN

Mexico, 2021, 111 minutes, Colour.

Mayra Batalla, Marya Membreno, Ana Cristina Ordonex Gonzalez, Memo Villegas.

Directed by Tatiana Huego.

There are many reasons for seeing this drama. The Mexican title indicates a night of fire and that is the culmination of the film, the audience watching several years in the Mexican village, hardships, oppression, exploitation.

However, the English title, the title of the novel on which the film was based, focuses more on the children in this Mexican village. The central character is Ana, the audience seeing her as a child, her absent father, her hard-working mother, the pressures on her mother, the little girl with her friends at school, the good experiences at school, yet the hardships of work in the fields, and the role of the police, but, the oppressive and pervasive influence of the cartels.

The film spends a lot of time with Ana and her school friends, her exhilaration with school, the sympathetic teachers, the precarious careers of the teachers, having to move on, pressurised by the cartels.

And, the young girls, the journey to puberty, changing awareness, the young girl with the hare lip and having it fixed, her brother and his skill at riding, and the role of the various mothers.

The put-upon Rita, mother of An, initially tries to take her child from the authorities by burying her. And, by the end of the film, it is the same technique to save her daughter. But, an uprising of the people, the teacher presents, the mothers, but lamentably absent daughters – and the prospect of the situation in the villages not changing for the future.

1. The Mexican title, the ending and the fire and insignificance? The English title for the novel? Humanely moving title?
2. Mexico, the 21^st century, the small villages, poverty, menial way earning money and not sending it, the single mothers and their children, and life, schooling and insecurity the teachers being able to stay, in the fields, the poppies, the other crops?
3. The background of the cartels, the power, the drugs, the networks, the thugs, harassment, violence, the threats to the teacher’s permanent employment, the threat to the women, the abduction of the young girls? And the role limitations of the local police?
4. The central focus on Ana and her mother, the action taking place over five or so years, the opening, the burying of an, and the end and Rita burying her daughter taking to save her? Rita, the work, at home, in the fields, the women with their phones the fields trying to contact their husbands, no money coming in for years? The effect on morale?
5. Ana, a strong character, even as a girl, with her mother, learning the truth about the situation, her friendship with the other girls, Maria (and this surgery on her head), Paula, together, the games, the mind reading? At school and the teacher, the activities? And saying she wanted to be a teacher?
6. The men in the town, the work, Maria and her brother, the boys and their attitudes, with the girls, his being tied, growing up, action, the riding of the ball, defiance?
7. Ana and her changing over the years, the different attitudes towards her mother, confronting, reconciling, the frustrations of her mother? The visit of the teacher, his giving the report about an hour, enabling her to continue studies? Anna and the classes, the talks by the little girls, about living things, the exercise of making the body and all the scraps from home?
8. The taking of Maria, the grief her mother, her brother, for her friends? Paula and the threats, her character, friendship and support of an? Reading each other’s minds?
9. The arrival of the vehicles, the men coming to search, wanting to take Ana, her mother hiding her again, the violence of the men, not finding Ana? Ana, the experience of the period, the matter-of-fact behaviour her mother? And, at her running along the road?
10. The night of the fire, everybody gathered, the teacher concluded, piling everything on the fire – and to what purpose?
11. Packing up, the people moving away, mother and daughter, to what future?
12. A vivid portrait of the plight of ordinary people in the Mexican countryside?