A bit more context up front might be helpful to fully appreciate what Cesar Diaz has accomplished in “Mexico 86,” a worthy follow-up to his 2019 international breakthrough film “Our Mothers.” Details are intentionally sparse as the film opens in 1976 Guatemala City, where sirens, gunshots and the cry of a baby are heard on a black screen and within moments you witness Maria (Bérénice Bejo) facing an impossible decision after arriving at the home of her mother Eugenia (Julieta Egurrola). She is asked to give up her young son Marco to live in safety in Cuba and continue her work as a member of the Guatemalan Liberation Army guerrillas to undermine the brutal dictatorship that has seized control of her homeland. A quick montage of documentary footage depicting her oppression is reason enough for Maria to consider sending her son away and going to Mexico herself. But the pair’s tyranny extends in part to the present day, affecting what little is known outside Guatemala about the war crimes committed during the military regime. The fact that audiences abroad might have questions about what exactly she is fleeing, without a clearer title, inadvertently demonstrates what Diaz is grappling with as a storyteller, given the great lengths the now-deposed leadership went to to cover it up.
In Our Mothers, Diaz faced this issue head-on, following an anthropologist tasked with identifying bones found in unmarked graves of those killed in the civil war. But in Mexico 86, the director must convey an even more subtle loss, following Bejo’s activist to Mexico, where serving the common good has upended her own life and that of her family. Continuing her role in the revolution from afar, Maria now calls herself Julia, an editor for an influential magazine, where she hopes to lay the groundwork for a damaging story for the government about “death diaries” the government kept about political opponents who killed them. The Guatemalan authorities never seem more than a stone’s throw away, threatening the relatives of Maria and Miguel (Leonardo Ortizgris), her partner on the ground. However, Julia’s real worries come from her own family: the decision to leave Marco in her mother’s care instead of sending him to Cuba catches up with her when Eugenia feels her age and is no longer able to look after the now 10-year-old.
As excited as Maria may be to see her mother and son again after their trip to Mexico, there is a cruel irony in bringing the family together to see how they have been torn apart by forces completely beyond their control. And while Diaz can create a ’70s-style paranoid thriller when his main character’s job is essentially that of a spy (and Bejo, with his Jean Seberg-style bob, delivers a delicate movie-star role), the real tension in “Mexico 86” comes from the scenes between Marco and his mother, who, for varying reasons of age and experience, cannot put into words what they really feel, making the exercise in sharing as a family seem as contrived as Julia’s undercover work for the magazine. While the film ultimately sits well alongside his previous film, Diaz may seem to some to be an unusual fit for this material, as he comes across as a narrator with real elegance, moving away from the grim treatment normally associated with period dramas from this region and era in favor of something more abstract and sad.
It’s not hard to see that an early scene in which Eugenia announces why she can no longer care for Marco and the mariachi band playing near their table at the restaurant begins to play a mournful ballad might seem a little too corny to some, but the graceful marriage of a larger cultural gravity tied to an individual tragedy illustrates the quiet power of Diaz’s work, offering compelling expressions of how personal cataclysms that could never previously be part of the public record contributed to the national mood and ability to move forward. In that respect, “Mexico 86” feels like a big step for Diaz and his country, as it brings to light a time that would otherwise have been destined to remain in the dark.
“Mexico 86” is not yet distributed in the USA.
