THE UNTAMED
La región salvaje
México, 2016 | 100 mins 
Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Amat Escalante

BEST DIRECTOR
VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2016.

Friday, Aug 25
9:15 PM | The Cinematheque
Saturday, Sep 2
9:30 PM | The Cinematheque 

Hypnotic, perturbing, and utterly enthralling, The Untamed combines a suspenseful family drama with truly bizarre elements of science fiction and horror. Desperate to flee but consumed by fear, Alejandra, a young mother and working housewife, is trapped in a violent and unsatisfying relationship with her husband, Angel. She leans on her brother Fabián for support, but he has secrets of his own. All of their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of the mysterious Veronica. She convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems… something whose force they cannot resist and with whom they must make peace or suffer its wrath.

“Sensual, erotic, and uncompromisingly weird, The Untamed will be difficult to forget.”
Diana Sanchez, TIFF

Alejandra es una joven madre y ama de casa que cría a sus hijos junto a su marido Ángel en una pequeña ciudad de México. Su hermano Fabián es enfermero en un hospital local. Sus vidas provincianas son alteradas con la llegada de la misteriosa Verónica. El sexo y el amor son frágiles en ciertas regiones donde existen los valores familiares y la hipocresía, la homofobia, y el machismo son fuertes. Verónica les convence de que en el bosque cercano, en una cabaña aislada, existe algo que no es de este mundo pero que es la respuesta a todos sus problemas. Es algo a cuya fuerza no se pueden resistir y con lo que deben hacer paz o sufrir su ira.

“Amat Escalante eleva su discurso—tanto artísticamente como técnicamente—a un nivel inalcanzable en nuestro cine. Total brutalidad que perpleja.” Christian Sida-Valenzuela, VLAFF Festival Director.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Producers: Amat Escalante, Jaime Romandia
Writers: Amat Escalante, Gibrán Portela
Cinematographer: Manuel Alberto Claro
Editors: Fernanda de la Peza, Jacob Secher Schulsinger
Cast: Simone Bucio,  Ruth Ramos,  Jesús Meza,  Edén Villavicencio, Kenny Johnston

Amat Escalante is a self-taught filmmaker from the city of Guanajuato in Mexico. He began his work in cinema at the age of fifteen. After making two short films, he wrote and directed Blood, his first feature film. Blood became part of the Official Selection Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 where it was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize chosen by International Film Critics. His second feature film, The Bastards, also premiered at Cannes in 2008 in the Official Selection Un Certain Regard. Heli is his third feature length film, and was part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Competition in 2013, where he received the award for Best Director. The Untamed is his new feature film for 2016.

COMMUNITY PARTNER