“Las Dead”, or how to focus a tragedy as a social satire

YOU: And bandits Films has since been called my small production company.

Q.: But the next film, “Ambar”, was an oriental fantasy, very different.

YOU: Very unusual even for me. I was looking for my voice. And I found her in satire, which allows me to report laughing the evils of Mexican society. As Molière did, “I take advantage of the mouth when they laugh, to throw what I think.” The “Punisigat Ridndo Mores”, which they say.

Q.: It is what we see in “The Blood of Herod”, “A wonderful world”, “Hell”, which here we met thanks to the Manteros, “the perfect dictatorship” and “What live Mexico”, what they call the Pentalogy of Estrada.

YOU: The five are now in Netflix, they have all done well. But at the time “Hell”, that story of drug traffickers, got out of my hands, became a popular cult film, made runs, dolls, t -shirts, more than ten million pirate discs are calculated.

Q.: That sounds good, popular cult film.

YOU: Without being pretentious, I cannot say that I am an author, that I make author cinema. But I am, in terms of popular culture. Because for me the cinema, if the public does not see it, loses half of its meaning.

Q.: I was lucky to see “the perfect dictatorship” in Biarritz, where he won the public prize, and people said “here are also corrupt, but they are discreet.” With everything you hit officials, politicians and the media, can it get official support, official credits, for your films?

YOU: The title of that film comes out of a phrase by Vargas Llosa, which said “Mexico is the perfect dictatorship because it has governed the same political party for 70 years.” As for public funds, sometimes I do not, sometimes not, but when I get something in my head it can take years but I get it.

Q.: How did you meet the author of “Las Dead”?

YOU: My father, José Estrada, was a film director. When he adapted the novel “Kill the lion”, that was where I discovered Ibarguengoitia, I was awakened curiosity and weakness to read all his novels, he is still one of my favorite authors, and I think “Las Dead” is his best work. His genius was to make a satire, change for humor the too rough, and assemble everything as if he were hearing the testimonies of the characters.

Q.: A resource that applies with great grace.

YOU: Having something so sordid, seeing in that story the portrait of a country, can be controversial. The novel is a satire and a complaint, has a microclimate where the characters also represent institutions, and the issues remain current. He was amazed that these crimes would have passed in his land, in Guanajato, one of the most religious and persigned places in Mexico. And a bit of the treatment that the yellow press, the magazine “Alarm!” Was scandalized, putting photos of the bodies on the lid and large titles.

Q.: We had something similar here, the magazine “Thus”, of great weekly roll.

YOU: I barely read the novel I said “I would like to make a movie with this story.” 50 years passed, things happen for something, because it touches me at my best, now that I am mature, and I could do it like a great canvas, because it is a series of six chapters and each chapter I did practically like a film of different genre. The first is of passionate love, the second a political satire, and thus, until the last one, which is between police and judicial, with a happy ending. It is my most complete job.

Q.: Huge production.

YOU: Time cars to beast, more than one hundred, 70 actors, hundred extra, dozens of locations, now that they abuse the green screens here there is something essential, of much rigor and demand with myself. They are almost all my usual actors, I always have them in my head while I write; My coguionist, Jaime Sampietro, intelligent man, with a sense of humor very close to mine, his friendship lasts me more than my women, also the executive producer Sandra Solares, the usual art director, and the Spanish musician Fernando Velázquez, because I wanted very symphonic music with real musicians and everything. And I had all Netflix’s support, which gave me total freedom, respected all my decisions. The experience helped me, because this comes at the best moment of my career. I hope that when you discover the famous Eureka and already, there comes the end!

Q.: Why did Valenzuela be told “the Poquianchis”?

YOU: It is not known. Thus they told the Lord that he sold the first brothel, and they inherited the name. Then, for years, not so much now, it was customary to say “it is as bad as the few little ones,” or “is a few.”

Q.: And why does the skull character interpret a male?

YOU: Well, because a skull has no gender. He is also a good actor.

Q.: Everything is good in the series, but I reproach you. There can be no lover so tireless and effective as we see in the first chapter!

YOU: Four times in a row … there are people like that, they exist, they have told me. No, it’s movie. But that justifies the obsession of the protagonist for that man, with a Pedro Infante -style whip, in a canteen with singers like the Los Panchos trio. Do you remember here the panchos, and Pedro Infante? Hopefully this series wakes up the interest.