New Mexican Directors: I Am No Longer Here & Identifying Features

In Mexico, cities and towns have become battlegrounds ruled by murderous gangs and drug cartels. Assassins called Sicarios are conscripted, often as teenagers, to instill fear, obedience, and acquiescence to drug lords. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project reports over 11,400 events of gang-related violence across the country since the beginning of 2018, with more than 80 percent targeting civilians. Rival groups competing for territory and drug trafficking routes exacerbate the chaos. This drug-dealing mayhem has, for better or worse, inspired plenty of entertainment. Films like Miss Bala (2011), Savages (2012), The Counselor (2013), and Sicario (2015) graphically depict the mechanics of the drug trade and the terrorism of gang violence. Slick thrillers like Blow and Traffic put movie stars at the center of the action. Well-meaning films like Maria Full of Grace or City of God proffer sobering studies on the social scourge of narcotics. Even in music, the Narcocorrido subgenre romanticizes criminality with stories of drug lords, arrests, shootouts, and betrayals. A report on NPR quoted the alarming conclusion of one of Mexico’s most prolific corridistas, Reynaldo “El Gallero” Martinez: “The kids of Reynosa and Matamoros and many parts of Mexico learn the words to a corrido before they learn the National Anthem.”

A scene from I Am No Longer Here.Two new films by young Mexican directors break from narco-romanticism and conventional action structures. I Am No Longer Here (streaming on Netflix) and Identifying Features reject conflicts that resolve in triumph, tragedy, or martyrdom. Instead, they make use of a kind of free-form narrative that highlights the emotional cost of living with fear, intimidation, and death.
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