Interview: Michel Franco – After Lucia (Despues de Lucia) | Cannes 2012

With Daniel and Ana (selected for Directors’ Fortnight – Cannes 2009) Mexican helmer Michel Franco peers into an unfathomable true life crime that is an assault on the class system and an unfortunate pair of siblings that becomes further more unsettling crime that subconsciously perpetuates itself into a shocking decisive blow. The enjoyably uncomfortable sit is made more nauseous-rendering with the employment of a stationary camera aesthetic look. Carrying over into his sophomore feature, with After Lucia, if adolescence wasn’t difficult enough, then imagine coping with death of your own mother while try to support an emotionally paralyzed father. The Un Certain Regard selected drama which I call Haneke for teens, announces the arrival one more brilliant Mexican auteur with a prowess for storytelling in a realist and naturalistic vein, strong thematic output and power visual details. I sat down with the helmer to discuss how we transmit pain, how we cope with loss, how he worked with actress Tessa Ia to shape  the character and this notion of psychological violence particularly among the classes in Mexico’s society.