SYNOPSIS
Cruz, a determined Raramuri indigenous man from Mexico, and his community were driven from their land by a drug cartel because they refused to grow opium poppies instead of corn. They now live in exile and fear for their lives while desperately seeking justice and a safe return to their homeland.
Title: Cruz
Country: Mexico
Year: 2021
Language: Spanish, Raramuri.
Color: Color
Runtime: 99 min
Screening format: DCP, Apple ProRess, DVD, Blu-ray y versión digital
Audio format: 5.1 y estéreo
Producer: Teresa Camou Guerrero, Jenny Mügel
Associate Producer: Ramiro Pedraza, DOCSMX, Bettina Walter, Inti Cordera
Production Companies: FOPROCINE- IMCINE
Impact Producer: Teresa Camou Guerrero, Ana Paula Suárez
Director: Teresa Camou Guerrero
Cinematographer: Aldo Hernández
Writer: Teresa Camou Guerrero
Editor: Lucrecia Gutiérrez Maupomé
Sound Design: Be Flores
Colorist: Esther Rivas Barbosa
Sound Technician: Ariana Rico Bustillos
Animator: Arturo López Pío
Music: Camilla Uboldi
Postproduction Supervisor: Víctor Gómez
“‘Cruz’ is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a Raramuri indigenous family in search of justice after losing everything to the expansion of organized crime in the Sierra Tarahumara. Yet, it is also the story of thousands of other families and individuals from indigenous and peasant communities in Mexico who have been forced to leave their land and their way of life because of violence.
In the context of human rights violations, the issue of forced internal displacement has gone unnoticed. Especially because it is a social sector that does not have a platform to raise its voice and demand efficient attention from the State. There are no exact figures on how many people, families and communities have had to abandon their homes, their people, their work, and their culture because of drug trafficking. Most of the displaced people prefer to become invisible than to denounce for fear of being killed.
The documentary “Cruz” aims to raise awareness, to open eyes, to understand the consequences of illegal drug production in indigenous and peasant communities, the loss of territory and identity and the lack of justice in Mexico.
I have known Cruz since 2001, when we worked together for several years teaching workshops in the Sierra Tarahumara, he on agrarian law and I on community theater. Throughout time, we have been united by a strong friendship that has allowed me to be very close to Cruz and his family since they were dispossessed of their land. This made me able to witness all the atrocities they have had to live through and observe both their despair and the struggle they maintain for the dignified return to their place of origin.”
– Teresa Camou Guerrero
Best documentary film directed by a woman awarded by the Association of Women in Film and TV. In the framework of the Morelia International Film Festival 2021.
Jury's honorable mention. Within the framework of the Zanate 2021 Documentary Film Festival.
In the northwest of Mexico rises an extensive and winding mountain range known as the Sierra Tarahumara. This is where the story of Cruz, a strong and peaceful Rarámuri man who has dedicated his life to the community, originates.
Since 2015, his children and 75 other families, were dispossessed of their land by drug traffickers when they refused to switch from planting corn to poppy. Their life changed completely. They now live as refugees in a city where day by day they are losing their identity, only leaving their homes to work, go to school and buy food. Here no one can be trusted, and they live under a persistent fear that at any moment they can be discovered and killed.
Simultaneously, in a vast territory full of mountains, ravines and winding roads, there is the home of Luis and Aurora, a Rarámuri couple who live from what they produce, in freedom. Their appreciation for the Rarámuri culture and their respect for life and nature is enormous. They work the land with great dedication, blessing it with prayers and holy water and then planting corn and beans. They talk about the insecurity and violence that has been generated throughout the region since the arrival of the narco, and how life has changed. They fear they will soon face the same fate as Cruz.
The story portrays a stark reality by narrating the "before" and "after" of a catastrophe that thousands of Mexican families face: the terrible violence that stems from drug trafficking. Some flee to the cities to escape the violence, while others seek refuge in the United States.
As time passes, Cruz loses hope that the government will ever arrest those responsible for her family's exile. His family is demanding answers, and the situation is leading them into a web of violence and criminalization.
Recently Cruz's last living son was arrested, accused of crimes he says he never committed, imprisoned, and subjected to a trial plagued with irregularities. Now Cruz is leading the fight to defend his son, Joel, to have a dignified return to his community and his way of life, and to not be criminalized by the Mexican government.
Cruz, his family and other members of the old community gather to prepare a Yúmare in the city, both an expression of resistance and a way to keep their cultural identity alive. The rite will exorcise the evil from their lives and give them the strength and unity they will need to carry on. Cruz dances Pascol, shaking rattles throughout the night as he awaits the sunrise and a new beginning.
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FILM DETAILS
Title: Cruz
Country: Mexico
Year: 2021
Language: Spanish, Raramuri.
Color: Color
Runtime: 99 min
Screening format: DCP, Apple ProRess, DVD, Blu-ray y versión digital
Audio format: 5.1 y estéreo
Producer: Teresa Camou Guerrero, Jenny Mügel
Associate Producer: Ramiro Pedraza, DOCSMX, Bettina Walter, Inti Cordera
Production Companies: FOPROCINE- IMCINE
Impact Producer: Teresa Camou Guerrero, Ana Paula Suárez
Director: Teresa Camou Guerrero
Cinematographer: Aldo Hernández
Writer: Teresa Camou Guerrero
Editor: Lucrecia Gutiérrez Maupomé
Sound Design: Be Flores
Colorist: Esther Rivas Barbosa
Sound Technician: Ariana Rico Bustillos
Animator: Arturo López Pío
Music: Camilla Uboldi
Postproduction Supervisor: Víctor Gómez
DIRECTOR'S COMMENT
“Cruz” is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a Raramuri indigenous family in search of justice after losing everything to the expansion of organized crime in the Sierra Tarahumara. Yet, it is also the story of thousands of other families and individuals from indigenous and peasant communities in Mexico who have been forced to leave their land and their way of life because of violence.
In the context of human rights violations, the issue of forced internal displacement has gone unnoticed. Especially because it is a social sector that does not have a platform to raise its voice and demand efficient attention from the State. There are no exact figures on how many people, families and communities have had to abandon their homes, their people, their work, and their culture because of drug trafficking. Most of the displaced people prefer to become invisible than to denounce for fear of being killed.
The documentary “Cruz” aims to raise awareness, to open eyes, to understand the consequences of illegal drug production in indigenous and peasant communities, the loss of territory and identity and the lack of justice in Mexico.
I have known Cruz since 2001, when we worked together for several years teaching workshops in the Sierra Tarahumara, he on agrarian law and I on community theater. Throughout time, we have been united by a strong friendship that has allowed me to be very close to Cruz and his family since they were dispossessed of their land. This made me able to witness all the atrocities they have had to live through and observe both their despair and the struggle they maintain for the dignified return to their place of origin.
– Teresa Camou Guerrero
AWARDS
Best documentary film directed by a woman awarded by the Association of Women in Film and TV. In the framework of the Morelia International Film Festival 2021.
Jury's honorable mention. Within the framework of the Zanate 2021 Documentary Film Festival.
FULL SYNOPSIS
In the northwest of Mexico rises an extensive and winding mountain range known as the Sierra Tarahumara. This is where the story of Cruz, a strong and peaceful Rarámuri man who has dedicated his life to the community, originates.
Since 2015, his children and 75 other families, were dispossessed of their land by drug traffickers when they refused to switch from planting corn to poppy. Their life changed completely. They now live as refugees in a city where day by day they are losing their identity, only leaving their homes to work, go to school and buy food. Here no one can be trusted, and they live under a persistent fear that at any moment they can be discovered and killed.
Simultaneously, in a vast territory full of mountains, ravines and winding roads, there is the home of Luis and Aurora, a Rarámuri couple who live from what they produce, in freedom. Their appreciation for the Rarámuri culture and their respect for life and nature is enormous. They work the land with great dedication, blessing it with prayers and holy water and then planting corn and beans. They talk about the insecurity and violence that has been generated throughout the region since the arrival of the narco, and how life has changed. They fear they will soon face the same fate as Cruz.
The story portrays a stark reality by narrating the "before" and "after" of a catastrophe that thousands of Mexican families face: the terrible violence that stems from drug trafficking. Some flee to the cities to escape the violence, while others seek refuge in the United States.
As time passes, Cruz loses hope that the government will ever arrest those responsible for her family's exile. His family is demanding answers, and the situation is leading them into a web of violence and criminalization.
Recently Cruz's last living son was arrested, accused of crimes he says he never committed, imprisoned, and subjected to a trial plagued with irregularities. Now Cruz is leading the fight to defend his son, Joel, to have a dignified return to his community and his way of life, and to not be criminalized by the Mexican government.
Cruz, his family and other members of the old community gather to prepare a Yúmare in the city, both an expression of resistance and a way to keep their cultural identity alive. The rite will exorcise the evil from their lives and give them the strength and unity they will need to carry on. Cruz dances Pascol, shaking rattles throughout the night as he awaits the sunrise and a new beginning.
“ Cruz’ shows the identity and freedom that violence in Mexico takes away.”
– Bianka Estrada, sinembargo.com
GALLERY
GALLERY
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
