2024 (Mexico) 126 minutes
Directed by: Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez
Four-year-old Sujo is left orphaned when his father, a sicario, is brutally murdered. He is left in the care of his aunt, who makes it her mission to protect him from drug traffickers and takes Sujo to live with her in an isolated house in the mountains. They are safe there for a few years, but when Sujo becomes a teenager, he realizes the tentacles of the cartels are almost inescapable, and he is forced to migrate to the capital and start a new life. When he settles in Mexico City, everything seems to work out—he gets a job, attends classes, and begins a friendship with a university professor. Then one day, an old friend from the gang back home shows up asking for his help. Sujo brings a breath of fresh air to themes widely addressed in cinema and the media—the brutal cycle of violence transmitted from generation to generation, and a fatal heritage hard to get rid of. But this film tells a different story, a more humanistic and hopeful tale of alternative paths to violence.
2025 Academy Award Submission from MEXICO
2024 Sundance Film Fest – Won – Grand Jury World Cinema
2024 San Sebastian Film Fest – Won – Espanola Award
Incline Village Cinema – December 5 – 8:30pm