Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas was named best director at last month’s Cannes Film Festival for his personal, surrealist movie, “Post Tenebras Lux.”
The unconventional motion picture was met with boos at its screening, but Reygadas said “it flatters me that a good portion of the press don’t like it. It’s not my aim to to please the greatest number of people possible.”
Born in Mexico City in 1971, Reygadas was previously honored at the prestigious French festival in 2007, when he was awarded the Panel of Judges’ Prize for “Luz silenciosa.”
“The film really sprang from my subconscious,” Reygadas said of his latest effort, which centers on an attractive young couple with two kids (his real-life children) living in a charming house in the woods (his childhood home) who are plagued by violent events.The violence is a reflection of what is happening in Mexico today, with a man pulling his own head off in one of the film’s most shocking scenes. Reygadas said he chose the image “because the country is suffering and it is a powerful image of suffering.”
Another Mexican director, Michel Franco, won the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar competition, Un Certain Regard, which focuses on up-and-coming filmmakers. Franco’s movie “After Lucia,” was named the best of 20 films by a jury headed by British actor Tim Roth.