Mexican director Amat Escalante did not believe he had any chance of winning the Cannes Film Festival Best Director prize for his movie “Heli,” a raw take on Mexico’s drug trafficking conundrum.
“I never expected this,” he said after receiving the award from actor Forrest Whittaker. “But it’s a great honor.”
“Heli” divided critics at the festival but found favor with the Cannes jury, headed by director Steven Spielberg.
Telling the story of a humble Mexican family that gets caught up in the drug trade, “Heli” unapologetically depicts the violence that has plagued Mexico in recent years. Although some reviewers said they found some of the scenes of violence “gratuitous” – one even walked out after feeling sick – others praised the honesty of the film, with the Guardian calling it “a damning indictment of contemporary Mexico, capturing its institutionalized corruption, its endemic cruelty.”Escalante, who was born in Barcelona, Spain, but grew up in Mexico and became a naturalized citizen, dedicated his triumph to this country. “I’m not a politician and I don’t represent Mexico but this is a film that expresses my feelings about Mexico.”
The film has no opening date in Mexico but, thanks to the Cannes publicity, will clearly expect to do well at the box office when it hits screens.