Mexican director Lila Avilés returns to Brussels screens with her second feature "Tótem". A touching choral composition, the story of a day in the life of a family. A family that organizes itself as best it can in the face of lurking death. At the Palace, starting today.
In 2018's "La Camarista", Lila Avilés followed the daily life of a chambermaid in a grand hotel. In this first attempt as a director, we appreciated Avilés' sensitive eye, her attention to detail and her ability to observe the dynamics of relationships. These are qualities we find again in "Tótem", in which she delves into the microcosm of the family unit.
It's the story of a day. The kind of day you remember for the rest of your life. The kind where there's a "before" and an "after". Those days when everything matters. It's the birthday of Tona, father of seven-year-old Sol. The whole family gets together to make this a memorable occasion: the cake is prepared, the hair is dyed, the costumes are changed. A healer is even called in to chase away the evil spirits in the house. But this time, the party has a bitter taste. Tona is ill with cancer, and it's clear to everyone that this could be Tona's last birthday.
Lila Avilés presents us with a fresco that she paints before our eyes in layers. Within the confines of the house, scenes accumulate like puzzle pieces. The camera focuses on snippets of life, each time illuminating a different part of the story. Little by little, the picture takes shape, and the family holds on to prevent it from cracking. A family reorganized by illness, where everyone plays their part, whether chosen or imposed. For Tótem, the director returns to the home and observes how the characters inhabit it and themselves.
Avilés' dialogues and silences hit the nail on the head. In a single scene, what's said, what needs to be said and what's thought but never said coexist. What we avoid to talk about in front of the children, in a desperate attempt to keep them safe. The characters do what they can to express their love for Tona. They manage. For this anniversary, they find themselves both together and terribly alone. And they try to maintain a festive atmosphere, with their heads and eyes full of tears.
Lila Avilés trained in theater, a past that is palpable in the troupe spirit that shines through in "Tótem". The upstream construction of a veritable family clan is screen-stopping. Where the sum of individualities forms a solid whole. A self-taught filmmaker, from her very first film onwards, the director chose to cast actors with no dramatic arts background. A choice crowned with both critical and public success. In auteur cinema, you're rarely a prophet in your own country. Not so for Tótem, which won three prizes at the Morelia Film Festival and was chosen to represent Mexico at the Oscars.
In competition at the 2023 Berlinale, "Tótem" establishes Avilés as a major figure in Mexican cinema. An industry in the midst of a revival, following the wave surfed by Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Iñarritu and Alfonso Cuarón. The 42-year-old director embodies an auteur cinema that is deliberately quiet. A cinema of sincere, sensitive stories, with new points of view, far removed from the violence of some other national productions. In "Tótem", simplicity is the key to a universal family portrait. It's a gem that we hope will strike a chord with moviegoers in Brussels, where cinemas are sadly reluctant to program Latin American films.
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