Muristek
The new wave of female film-makers confronting Mexico’s violence against women
After years of on-screen successes led by the likes of Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, female directors are making their mark with urgent, disquieting cinema
When young Ana is forced to have her hair cut in Tatiana Huezo’s film Prayers for the Stolen, her tears indicate the heartbreak of lost youth. It’s a protective measure taken by her mother who is desperate to prevent Ana from being kidnapped, like so many other young girls in their town have been, by the drug cartels who patrol the surrounding area. Prayers for the Stolen, the first fiction feature from Mexican-Salvadorian documentary-maker Huezo, captures the brutality and fear of growing up in such circumstances.
The facts are grim. An Amnesty International report released in September 2021 found that 10 women and girls are killed every day in Mexico. More broadly, the Congressional Research Service estimates that since 2006, 150,000 people have been killed in Mexico due to organised criminal violence. Propelled by drug wars and battles between cartels for new territory since the 1980s, how can art or culture reflect such a terrifying threat? Now a group of female film-makers, emerging and established, are tackling the violence in their work, creating urgent and disquieting cinema that brings the country’s horrors into the spotlight. Prayers for the Stolen sits alongside 2020’s Identifying Features and the forthcoming Robe of Gems, which recently won the Silver Bear jury prize at the Berlin film festival.
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