Interviews

Interview: Amat Escalante (The Untamed)

Published on July 21, 2017

After three features steeped in what would could describe as hyperrealism, Amat Escalante makes a slight deviation, introducing towards fantastical elements in his fourth feature film. After winning Best Director prize in Cannes for Heli, Amat Escalante arrived at last year’s TIFF with another Best Director win at the Venice Film Festival for The Untamed.

In our conversion, we discuss the larger significance of the film’s title, how his own home’s region informs the filmmaker on the tone of his films, the resemblances found in his quartet character set, the introduction the film’s key supernatural element and in referencing Samuel Fuller’s quote “like If your first scene doesn’t give you a hard on, throw it out!” we touched upon some of his signature strong imagery.

Strand Releasing releases The Untamed in NY today at the IFC Center, and it opens in LA on 7/28 at The Cinefamily, Laemmle’s Monica Film Center and Playhouse 7. Here’s his my sit-down with the filmmaker.

Related Topics:Amat Escalante, Foreign Films Interview, The Untamed, top-stories

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).