Cine Latino Film Festival

Named for the middle-class neighbourhood in 1970s Mexico City where the bulk of the film takes place, Academy Award-winning director Alfonso Cuaron opens the 2018 Melbourne Cine Latino Film Festival with the semi-autobiographical Roma. Following a turbulent year in the life of Cleo, a young domestic worker to a family of four and their mother, Sofia, Roma is a black and white, 65mm visual feast with Cuaron finding art in the grace and mundanity of middle-class life.

A co-production with Netflix, Roma is the first of a wave of new films to challenge the streaming giant’s theatrical release strategy, enjoying a wider theatrical release before its online premiere. A blessing as Cuaron’s latest is one best enjoyed on a big screen in a dark theatre. Cuaron, credited as his own director of photography, rarely strays from his love for medium shot, long take set pieces, filling every inch of the screen with an authentic texture and detail. Bouncing from the vibrancy of the inner city, the wide expanses of the countryside and the deafening roar of the beaches, Cuaron offers a tour of period Mexico, a country where class and race are intertwined and socio-political tensions are building to violent boil as both Cleo and Sofia wrestle with radical changes to their status quo.

As Cleo, first-time actor Yalitza Aparicio gives an understated performance, one of quiet strength and patience as she weathers the chaos of a household of four children and the slings and arrows of a political turned personal revolt. As the matriarch of the family, Marina de Tavira’s Sofia struggles to keep a grasp on her rapidly devolving lifestyle, faced with an absent husband and unruly children, her performance charts a woman lashing out in panic, anger and grief before settling on reluctant understanding. No one is coming to save her or Cleo, they must save themselves.

Poignant, tragic and often very funny, Roma is a beautiful and intimate experience; a story that needed to be told and a film that deserves to be seen.

The Cine Latino Film Festival kicks off Tuesday, 13 to Wednesday, 28 November at Palace Cinema Como, Westgarth and the Astor Theatre.

Cine Latino Film Festival
Tuesday, 13 to Wednesday, 28 November 2024
Palace Cinema Como, South Yarra; Palace Cinema Westgarth, Northcote; The Astor Theatre, St Kilda
cinelatinofilmfestival.com.au