Feature film
Canoa: A Shameful Memory
Canoa
Felipe Cazals · 1976
Synopsis
September 1968. Five young employees of the Autonomous University of Puebla set out to climb the volcano La Malinche. Caught by the rain, they look for shelter for the night in San Miguel Canoa, a village in the Sierra de Puebla. The priest, an ally of the local bosses, has for weeks been presenting the students as communists and atheists, and the villagers are wary of these strangers. A narrator, facing the camera, comments on the events.
Context
Written by Tomás Pérez Turrent, produced by Conacite Uno and photographed by Álex Phillips Jr., the film reconstructs the lynching that took place in this village in Puebla on the night of 14 to 15 September 1968, a few weeks before the Tlatelolco massacre. Unable to shoot on the actual site, the crew worked in Santa Rita Tlahuapan. The narrative proceeds by jumps in time, with a narrator who gives it the look of a documentary. It was released on 4 March 1976.
Who it is for
A film of nearly two hours, whose scenes of violence are harrowing; it can be followed without knowing the facts.
Prizes and reception
Silver Bear, special jury prize, at Berlin in 1976; fourteenth of the hundred best films of Mexican cinema.
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