Set
in 1999 against a backdrop of student protests,
Güeros is a road movie that becomes a voyage of
discovery for three rootless young people
seeking to bridge the gap between aimlessness
and social purpose. The debut feature film by
Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios received
twelve nominations at the 57th Ariel Awards, the
Mexican equivalent of the Oscars, winning five
of them including Best Film, Best Director, Best
First Film, Best Sound, and Best Cinematography
(Damian Garcia). Shot in black-and-white, the
film is evocative of the French New Wave,
balancing highly structured sequences with
segments of spontaneous and playful
improvisation.
In the film, Tomas (Sebastian Aguirre), a
disruptive pre-teen in Veracruz is sent by his
overburdened mom to Mexico City to live with his
brother Federico (Tenoch Huerta), a slacker
college student known as Sombra because of his
dark skin. Tomas is called a “güeros” because of
his lighter complexion underscoring an element
of racial conflict in Mexican society. Living
with his similarly uninvolved roommate, Santos
(Leonardo Ortizgris) in an apartment complex in
Copilco that looks as if it’s next on the
waiting list for demolition, Sombra’s position
on the student strike is firmly in the middle,
saying that he is “on strike against the
strike.” His daily activity consists of …well,
nothing much. He and Santos sit around watching
TV by borrowing an electrical cord from a little
girl downstairs, an action that does not sit too
well with the girl’s father.
Bored, Tomas decides that a little adventure
never hurt anyone and comes up with a plan to
find Epigmiento Cruz, an enigmatic folk singer
from the sixties who their father loved in order
to have him sign their well-worn cassette tape.
Cruz is symbol of something bigger than them, a
larger than life hero who can make them see
what’s behind things as Sombra says, “If you can
see behind things, the only thing they can’t
take away from you is that feeling.” Though the
singer is rumored to be sick or dying, little
güerito tells Fede that Cruz “once made Bob
Dylan cry,” presumably an accomplishment worthy
of a place in the hall of fame. The trip,
according to Ruizpalacios, was inspired by Bob
Dylan’s journey to visit an ailing Woody Guthrie
in the hospital during the late 50s.
Shrugging off a panic attack which is carefully
explained to him at the hospital, Sombra visits
the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM) where students are on strike to show
their disagreement with the administration’s
decision to instate an enrollment fee even
though the University had always been free.
Sombra, Santos, and Tomas walk into an
auditorium overflowing with protestors listening
to Sombra’s former girlfriend Ana (Ilse Salas)
speaking in front of the room. The scene is
filled with shouting and confrontation, a
chaotic depiction not to the liking of some
former protesters who complained about the
unserious tone of the segment. As Ana joins the
trio to look for Cruz, their quest leads them to
a pool party where well-to-do intellectuals muse
about the sorry state of Mexican cinema.
Here the film engages in a sort of self-parody
as one director complains that all Mexican
movies deliver a picture of impoverished beggars
to satisfy Western audiences at film festivals.
Sombra also chimes in, saying that Mexicans are
often portrayed as cheaters, atheists,
prostitutes and alcoholics. Güeros ultimately
takes many detours and shifts of perspective
but, though it is episodic in structure, never
loses its footing as the search for the
legendary Epigmiento allows the seekers to move
from a place of apathy to one of self-acceptance
and commitment.
Ruizpalacios describes the film’s central theme
as “the change from being static to being in
movement. Healing through movement.” However you
interpret Güeros’ message, the film has an
invigorating appeal: fresh, playful, and
meaningful, even suggesting at one point that
the seeming randomness of life is guided by
divine purpose. Sombra says at one point that
“If the world is a train station and the people
are the passengers, those who stay at the
station and watch the trains go by are the
poets, the ones who come and won’t go.” Tomas is
one who watches the trains depart, seeing as we
all have once with the innocent eyes of
discovery as the city unfolds before his eyes
with all its massive contradictions,
encompassing the best and worst of humanity.
GRADE: A
Howard Schumann