Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #51. David Zonana’s Heroico

Heroico

A longtime producer for Michel Franco’s films, Mexican filmmaker David Zonana finally kicked off his feature filmmaking career with Workforce (Mano de obra) in 2019 shoring up at TIFF and competing in San Sebastian. Zonana moves from non-professional bricklayers with a valid chip on their shoulders to the joys of training and humiliation when young recruits enter military college with his sophomore feature. Zonana describes his curiosity of wanting “to show the psychological and physical side that these boys who want to enter the go through and what their life is like inside the armed institute”. With Heroico, he reteams with his cinematographer Carolina Costa and works with professional (Santiago Sandoval, Mónica del Carmen and New Order‘s Fernando Cautle) and non-professional actors. We’re really curious to see what happens in these barracks. Production took place in September of 2021.

Gist: This revolves around the military life in Mexico.

Release Date/Prediction: We see this playing in the Un Certain Regard or Directors’ Fortnight section in Cannes this summer.