What to expect
Buñuel combines social observation with dream, cruelty, sound, and startling subjective images. The film refuses both sentimental rescue and the comforting belief that deprivation automatically creates solidarity.
How to ease in
Keep Pedro and Jaibo distinct: one still reaches for another life, while the other converts injury into control. The dream is not an escape from realism but another record of need.
Heads-up
Children surviving on the margins of Mexico City become trapped in cycles of violence, abandonment, labour, and retaliation.
The city keeps assigning adult consequences to children without giving them adult power. I hold onto Pedro’s small attempts to change because the film shows exactly how little room they receive.
Open the note ↓
The city keeps assigning adult consequences to children without giving them adult power. I hold onto Pedro’s small attempts to change because the film shows exactly how little room they receive.
— Momo
Credits & versions
- Cast
- Alfonso Mejía — Pedro · Roberto Cobo — El Jaibo · Stella Inda — Pedro's mother · Miguel Inclán — Don Carmelo
- Screenplay
- Luis Buñuel · Luis Alcoriza
- Production
- Oscar Dancigers · Jaime Menasce · Ultramar Films
- Cinematography
- Gabriel Figueroa
Version map
Where to go next
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