Alejandro G. Iñárritu's unapologetically personal and dreamlike Bardo opens at VIFF Centre November 18
A Mexican filmmaker is visited by a series of vivid dreams, by old friends, ghosts, and his own uneasy conscience
In Bardo, Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is an esteemed Mexican documentary filmmaker going through an existential mid-life crisis.
One of Mexico’s greatest filmmakers—Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the director of The Revenant, Birdman, and Amores Perros—is back with one of his most unapologetically personal and surreal films yet.
In the new Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is an esteemed Mexican documentary filmmaker going through an existential mid-life crisis occasioned by his latest award. Returning to his homeland for a few days, he is visited by a series of vivid dreams, by old friends, ghosts, and his own uneasy conscience. Some of the opening imagery? A subway car floods as a man tries to retrieve a lost fish, and a new-born baby is so dismayed by the state of the world it climbs back inside its mother’s womb. Prepare for CGI to be used in striking, dreamlike ways.
The film is a portrait of the artist trying to reconcile his success with his politics, his Mexican heritage with his choice to live in the U.S., his ego with his sense of shame. .
Startling and astonishing, Iñárritu’s new work might be the most talked-about film of the year. See it first at VIFF Centre, November 18 to 30; tickets, showtimes, and more information are here.
Post sponsored by VIFF.