Tempest

Tempestad

Tempest

Tatiana Huezo

MX
2016
Documentary
105’
Focus

A young mother and several other innocent victims are accused of human trafficking and thrown into a jail run by the Gulf cartel. These victims are known as pagadores, someone made to pay for the crimes of others. The woman finds herself in a place far beyond any form of democratic control, with everything run by the cartel. The prisoners’ families are forced to pay money regularly in order that the captives are kept alive.

When the young mother is suddenly released, she has to make the 2,000-kilometre trip home by bus. Adding another narrative to the film’s main voice-over, the director shows the same journey from northern Mexico deep into the south, with images of bus stations, passing landscape and people waiting around. The narrative voice could belong to almost any of the women’s faces that we see. Following day-to- day events, the film provides an arbitrary portrayal of the young woman’s fate. Breaking from its main storyline, the film intercuts the parallel story of a circus artist whose daughter has been kidnapped.

Tempest is both an intimate report of the experiences of two survivors and the captivating depiction of a country in the grip of organized crime.


Awards for ›Tempestad‹
Lobende Erwähnung – Caligari-Filmpreis des Bundesverbandes kommunale Filmarbeit und des Kinomagazins FILMDIENST 2016

Director / Script

Tatiana Huezo

Cinematography

Ernesto Pardo

Editing

Lucrecia Gutiérrez Maupomé, Tatiana Huezo

Sound

Federico González

Music

Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman

Production

Pimienta Films, Cactus Films, Terminal

Contact

Cinephil

Tatiana Huezo

Born in El Salvador, Huezo grew up in Mexico and studied film at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) and at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. She enjoyed instant fame with her debut film The Tiniest Place, 2011, which was screened at over fifty international film festivals, won many awards and was declared a »sublime documentary debut« by Variety magazine. Tempest is her second feature film. She currently lives in Mexico and teaches documentary film directing at the CCC.


Films by Tatiana Huezo
Ausencias (Absences) 2015 | Ver, oír y callar (See, listen and be silent) 2015 | El lugar más pequeño (The Tiniest Place) 2011 | Retrato de familia (Family Portrait) 2005 | El ombligo del mundo (The Core of the Earth) 2001 | Tiempo caústico (Caustic Time) 1997