David Villafranca
Los Angeles (USA), January 30th (EFE). – With a bold vital and spiritual transformation, one of the most relevant Mexican actors of his generation has arrived at Sundance Tenoch Huerta Festival and who is now starring in “Son of monarchs” where cinema and biology dance side by side.
“I’ve always insisted that science and art are practically the same: it’s to imagine worlds that don’t exist and make them real, and make them possible,” he defended in an interview with Efe.
“The practice of science is a gigantic metaphor: you take an element, you combine it with another seemingly unrelated element, and when you put it together, you make a third meaning (…). There is no animal that makes science and no animal makes art: that is the only thing that distinguishes us About animals. “
The iconic monarch butterflies are the backbone of this movie directed by Alexis Gambes, a French-Venezuelan filmmaker and also a scientist, where Huerta plays a Mexican biologist named Mendel who lives in New York but has many outstanding novels in his native land. .
He is best known for series like “Narcos: México” and movies like “Días de gracia” (2011) or “Güeros” (2014), and he accompanies Huerta on the cast of “Hijo de monarcas” by Noé Hernández, Alexia Rasmussen and Paulina Gitan.
Animal instinct
“I think many times when I am making a movie, the animal is like my way of connecting so many subjects,” said Gambes.
“The butterfly was interesting because there is this aspect of migration: from Canada through the United States to Mexico. It is a symbol for immigrants because of the idea that the butterfly migrates, has no boundaries, and can fly over a wall. It is like the indomitable part of a king.”
Parallel to his search for butterflies, Mendel’s character gradually embarked on an existential transformation, as the film delves into themes such as death, resentment, forgetfulness, and family.
“We found Mendel in a cocoon, in a cocoon, somewhat paralyzed,” Huerta said.
“Poeticism aside, I thought it was a functional depression. It works fine: It works, interacts with people, and can sustain itself … but it’s depressed, it floats. Still in the process of liquefaction before building something else. And when it dares to do it … Throwing himself into life, in his demons, in his madness, and losing his mind without fear (…) then he can find himself, “he said.
Lab rituals
Filmed in New York and Michoacan (Mexico), “Hijo de monarcas” was shown at Sundance, the world’s most important independent cinema event, within the non-competitive NEXT division of the most innovative films.
Plus, this movie’s journey has started nicely since Sundance has already announced that it will win an Alfred P. Sloan Award this year, which recognizes films about science or technology.
Mendel’s scientific investigations are an essential part of his account, but “Son of Kings” also pays a lot of attention to the spirituality of his character, his rituals outside of logic, and his religious inclinations far from any theory that can be proven.
“Science and spirituality should be more closely related,” said Gambes.
“People think that science is something very objective and separate from ritual, but it is a very philosophical world in which one thinks a lot about life’s questions and in himself. In my experience as a biologist when I was in the lab, the character of Tinook, I was in that shelter and had appearances in my life, of my grandmother who She died at that time … “, he remembers.
In this sense, Huerta explained that in life and in interpretation, it is precisely drawn between these two poles: the animal and the mind, the scientific and the supernatural.
“If not, I wouldn’t be able to be an actor. I know very rational and good actors, and the end result, I really don’t like the way they work. I know actors who throw themselves like animals and I think it’s cool. It’s the kind of acting that I like. It moves me, takes me and connects me.” .
The best example of this was Huerta in one of the co-stars, Noé Hernández, who highlighted his “amazing generosity,” who said he learned from him “every time” that he shared a scene, and who emphasized that he “thinks the scene is very good,” And build it well “and then” let’s go with it all. “
“I consider Noi Hernandez to be the best Mexican actor alive,” he concluded. EFE
dvp / afs / cpy
