De ida y vuelta

Undocumented immigrant Filiberto returns to his village in Mexico after six years spent working in the fields around Stockton, California. His happiness to be back is eroded by what has happened in his absence. His mother passed away and his girlfriend married his cousin. Filiberto has every reason to work for the violent and corrupt son of the landowner. The son, who is more in the mold of a ruthless narco cartel boss, is offering him good pay. However the choice couldn't be more stark. If he accepts it, he abandons his people and becomes a tool of the brutality employed in order to take all the land and consolidate it. The actor who plays Filiberto is excellent in this part. The story gets progressively more intense as the action shifts to Mexico City, an incredible locale for a film. The title in English is Back and Forth and that sums up what Filiberto's life has become with the lonely lure of the US and the sentimental attachment of a home that is eroding away.

I must differ with the previous comment."DE IDA Y VUELTA" is not only about the exploitation of migrant workers by landlords, or the choices they made because of the poverty, it goes beyond that. This is the story of a man that seeks for his future in another country as an illegal worker. He returns to find things worse in his little village. The previous landlord's son is now in charge and doing everything to get hold of land. It's like a Mexican version of the plot of Chinatown (without the detective). The last family harassed by the landlord is the family of his former girlfriend and his cousin, one that promised to wait for him, the other who promised to never approach her. This man, incredibly portraited by Taracena, a very talented actor, has to decide where are his loyalties. Specially when everything, in the best film film noir fashion, goes wrong. There are many surprises in the story, Aguirre's direction is full of dark humor, despair and a deep knowledge of human's lack of humanity.

This sharply designed social tragedy speaks about the injust battle between powerfull landlords and migrant workers. And how despair can turn into poison all love, friendship and identity.Filiberto the main character is an icon of thousands of mexican workers without hope in both sides of the border. This very well crafted film takes the audience through the images into a deep emotional level.

I was very impressed by BACK AND FORTH (the US title), and greatly disappointed to see this ignored in the US, as it's among the finest recent Mexican films I've seen - almost as great of a film as Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN or JAPON, but completely unlike either. Blending heightened realism (incorporating sociological and personal-identity concerns that recalled Steinbeck), suspense and drama in excellent fashion, I would highly recommend checking this out - the performances in this modest but well-crafted tale of identity and dislocation are top-notch, and the cinematography is breathtaking, which only hammers home the tragedy of the story.