Sujo
Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez return for a compassionate and humane look at the consequences of Mexico’s drug cartel culture.
Image courtesy of BEAM Films.
It was when the feature film Identifying Features received a limited release in the UK in 2021 that I first came across the work of the Mexican filmmakers Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez. On that occasion Valadez was listed as the sole director but the two of them shared the writing credit and were among the film’s producers. Indeed, in one capacity or another, they have often collaborated but Sujo finds them sharing the directorial role for the first time and also sees Rondero credited for the film’s music score.
I regarded Identifying Features as being close to a masterpiece and that was obviously not a unique view since it won no less than forty-five awards. It was a drama with a social conscience illustrating the plight of Mexicans drawn to risk everything by trying to cross into America and Sujo is again a work concerned with conditions in Mexico. In this instance its subject is the power of cartels and the extent to which young people can be sucked into their world. Sujo (Juan Jesús Varela who also acted in Identifying Features) is an example of this since he is a young man living in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán whose own father, Josue (Juan Jesús Varela Hernández) had been a sicario. It is with the father that the film starts when Sujo is just four years old (the boy being played by Kevin Uriel Aguilar Luna). These opening scenes quickly establish the control exercised by the local cartel since Josue becomes a marked man on killing the son of the local boss. Sujo's mother had died when giving birth to him so when the retribution by the cartel follows the boy is left dependent on his aunts to bring him up, Nemesia (Yadira Pérez Esteban) and Rosalia (Karla Garrido).
Furthermore, when a sicario is identified and his victim is linked to a cartel the vengeance to be expected falls on his family as well. Consequently, as he grows Sujo is kept in a rural setting away from town for fear that he too will be killed. At least he has his two cousins as companions and we see these two, Jeremy and Jai, first as children and then as young men (as adults they are played by Jairo Hernández Ramirez and Alexis Jassiel Varela). To the dismay of the aunts these two are drawn into delivering drugs for the cartel and Sujo secretly joins them in town as adolescence leads him into accompanying them to party and to meet girls. But Sujo has ambitions of his own, even a literary bent, and he will be the one to go to Mexico City where he gains the support of a sympathetic teacher, Susan (Sandra Lorenzano). But is Sujo safe even there and how will he respond when Jai, dangerously in debt to the cartel, visits him needing money which Sujo can only obtain through stealing?
Although Sujo is a dramatic study of the way that a violent environment can draw in and even to some extent positively attract the young, the approach here is one that avoids scenes of violence. Instead, it's a film which shares the humanistic approach apparent in Identifying Features, aligns itself with the concerns of the female characters and shows compassion for Sujo himself disadvantaged as he is by the world around him. That ensures that one sympathises with this piece which has the additional advantage of a very competent cast. Sujo has indeed won awards, but far less than its predecessor did and that is surely down to several factors. One is the sometimes rather oblique storytelling. As the narrative progresses one does come to sort it all out but at times you have to work at it. Despite the essentially naturalistic presentation you also come to realise that you are being asked to accept that after a killing the ghost figure of the victim can appear to a relative. But, if that doesn't fit in too convincingly, it must also be said that we see rather less than we should of the community in which the cartel thrives and in which it can so readily lure in young males. Somewhat unnecessarily, the film is divided into four chapters named after particular characters and the ultimate impression is of a well-meaning work that never quite achieves the full impact that it might have done. As it happens, a comparable theme featured as a kind of sub-plot in another Mexican film released in 2024, Christopher Zalla's Radical, a somewhat underestimated work that achieved its aim far more assuredly. Nevertheless, Sujo is a worthwhile film made with commitment even if it achieves somewhat less than one might have hoped.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Juana Jesús Varela, Yadira Pérez Esteban, Alexis Jassiel Varela, Sandra Lorenzano, Jairo Hernández Ramirez, Karla Garrido., Kevin Uriel Aguilar Luna, Juan Jesús Varela Hernández, Jonathan Gerardo Hernández, Iker Santiago Lona Aguayo, Alexandro Fonseca Nino.
Dir Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, Pro Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez, Diana Arcega, Jean-Baptiste Bailly-Maitre, Virginia Devera and Jeweil Ross, Screenplay Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, Ph Ximena Amann, Pro Des Belén Estrada, Ed Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez and Susan Korda, Music Astrid Rondero, Costumes Aleja Sánchez.
Corpulenta Producciones/En Aguas Cine/Alpha Violet Production/Pimienta Films-BEAM Films.
126 mins. USA/Mexico/France. 2024. UK Rel: 13 December 2024. Cert. 15.
