A Female Take on Mexico 2016 / Los insólitos peces gato / Mexico, France 2013
Claudia has no family, nor any close friends. Yet when she meets a sick mother of four children, her life is turned around as she encounters a kind of trust she has never known before. A perceptive and personal story by a debuting director on the joys and woes that can impact any one of us.
Claudia lives a reclusive, joyless existence. Outside her shifts at the supermarket, where she listlessly presents the company’s new products, she has no communication with anyone and is simply resigned to navigating her way through her drab daily life. When she lands up in hospital one night with suspected appendicitis, she makes the acquaintance of Martha, a critically ill mother of four children. The two women get on extremely well during this short period, so much so that Claudia finds herself agreeing to help out in the family home. Her initially unsettled yet increasingly necessary and welcome presence in a house filled with unwavering affection, but also fear and uncertainty, steers all their lives in a new direction. While the movie touches upon the difficult themes of motherhood and confronting illness, it treats the subject matter with a humility and sincerity that heightens its authenticity. The characters’ balanced and credible typology, together with the director’s perceptive approach, lend this low-key yet powerful film distinctive qualities that are hard to forget.
Sandra Hezinová
89 min / Color, DCP
Director Claudia Sainte-Luce
/ Screenplay Claudia Sainte-Luce
/ Dir. of Photography Agnès Godard
/ Music Madame Recamier
/ Editor Santiago Ricci
/ Art Director Bárbara Enríquez
/ Producer Geminiano Pineda, Christian Kregel
/ Production Cine CANÍBAL, Jaqueca Films
/ Coproduction Good Lap Production
/ Cast Ximena Ayala, Lisa Owen, Sonia Franco, Wendy Guillén, Andrea Baeza, Alejando Ramírez Muñoz
/ Sales Pyramide International
Claudia Sainte-Luce (b. 1982, Veracruz, Mexico) graduated in visual arts from the University of Guadalajara (2004). In 2005 she competed at the Expresión en Corto IFF in Guanajuato, where Death Announced (Muerte anunciada) won Best Actor and the Audience Award. Before directing her feature debut The Amazing Cat Fish, she worked as an assistant director on Mexican films.
Pyramide International
32 rue de l’Echiquier, 750 10, Paris
France
Phone: +33 142 960 220
Fax: +33 140 200 551
E-mail: [email protected]
Ilaria Gomarasca
Distributor, Sales Agent
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