RUIDO/NOISE

Mexico/ Argentina, 2022, 105 minutes, Colour.

Julieta Egurrola, Teresa Ruiz, Adrian Vasquez.

Directed by Natalia Beristain.

The title is symbolic. The central character, Julia, has noises ringing in her ear, disturbing, images of her out in the countryside and the reverberations. However, there is a great deal of noise in this film, the demonstrations, the protesters, all seeking family relations who have disappeared, cannot be found, police inactivity, accusations of government connivance.

This is a very intense film, perhaps preaching to the converted, but hopes that it will raise consciousness, especially in Latin America, more particularly Mexico with the story is set, focusing on the number of men women and children who disappear, final statistics indicate more than 90,000 in recent years (with some pictures and incantations of their names during the final credits). The film itself is a demonstration, a protest.

The film opens with a long close-up of Julia, her getting up to face the day, the grief at the disappearance of her daughter nine months earlier, she and her husband invited to identify a body in the morgue, Julia upset with the seeming lack of interest and incompetence of the police. Later, she will visit her husband, he grieving intensely, depressed, and she irritated with him because of his concern about her when she wants to stay gripped by her grief. There are also telephone calls with her son.

The film uses close-ups and extreme close-ups to great effect, looking through faces into interior lives.

Julia goes to meetings of groups of women, listens to a long talk by her mother whose twin daughter has disappeared and the other twin is pregnant. At the meeting, a journalist, Abril is introduced and Julia has a meeting with her, giving her information about her daughter, last seen on holidays with friends, sending a video of the happy times. There are various episodes which follow, dealings with a commander, female, who takes a payment, but is wary about a woman going to areas controlled by men. There is a visit to an abandoned truck full of dead bodies, migrants. There is work in the fields with a group of women (actual searchers rather than actresses) out in the fields, looking for evidence, remnants, Julia herself being lowered into an underground caverns searching.

Abril is also able to take Julia to a powerful lawyer, Cassandra, but who is guarded at meetings by armed people for security.

There is a crisis when a bus is stopped in the night and Abril is abducted – never seen again.

Which leads to Julia going back to the city, seeing the demonstrations, lively, dancing, shouting, singing, masks, placards, Latin American verve. She encounters a young woman she had met earlier, a moment of support. Julia, who is an artist, and embroiderer, is able to pin a cloth with her daughter’s image on a clothesline along with other images and protests. But, bewildered, she is hit by the brutal police – and a final scene, back in the open country, her daughter revealing herself, and the sadness that the only way the two will be reunited is in the afterlife.

1. The title, for Julia, as a symbol for the theme of the film, issues, protest?
2. The Mexican setting, contemporary, cities, country towns, open country, homes, public areas, police headquarters, abandoned buildings…? Authentic? The musical score?
3. The strong social and political stances of the screenplay? Disappearances in Mexico? The cartels, human trafficking? Government attitudes? Police attitudes and inaction? The protest sequences and their vehemence, the women, feminism, the film as a protest?
4. Julia, audiences identifying with her, the opening, the focus on her face, the continued use of close-ups throughout the film, for Julia, extreme close-ups, four of the characters, the conversations, for reactions?
5. Julia and her background, artist, embroidery, exhibitions, the studio, management? Her relationship with her husband, with her daughter, with her son? The impact of her daughter’s disappearance, nine months, the consequences for her and her preoccupation with grief, her husband and his grief, immobility, wishing to die, and Julia’s irritation with him for his trying to help her? The phone calls with her son and her wanting to protect him? And the video of her daughter, on holidays, with her friends, the final words?
6. Julia and her husband, going to the police, to identify the body, not their daughter’s body? The new, third, man in charge? Attitude towards the police, action and inaction? Rodriguez, his attempts to help? His later appearance, helping Julia, warning her about dangers?
7. Julia, her age, experience, appearance, getting the tattoo in honour of her daughter, the visit to her husband and his lonely grieving, by himself? Her going to the group meetings, the women telling their stories, the long close-up of the woman, the disappearance of her twin daughter, the other daughter pregnant, the effect?
8. Abril, journalist, present at the meeting, meeting with Julia, bringing her daughter, Julia questioning her about her motivations, her concern for her daughter? Her character, age, accompanying Julia, in the bus, to the abandoned area, the meeting with Cassandra, the police guards and security? Bringing home to Julia the seriousness of the cases? Promise to help?
9. Julia joining the groups of women out in the fields, their commitment to the search, over many years, their backgrounds (and their being actual searches rather than actresses)? Julia being lowered down into the confined space, her search?
10. The local commander, policewoman, tough, the money? Taking her to the truck, the truck full of bodies, the dead migrants? The effect on Julia, the smell on her clothes? Yet continuing?
11. Julia’s commitment, travelling, her reactions, irritable, grieving?
12. The episode at the protest, the young woman, their talking, bonding? At the later protest, the young woman there again, Julia embracing her?
13. The bus, the abduction of Abril, and her not being seen again?
14. Julia, in the city, the demonstrations, the protesters, songs, marching, shouting, slogans, emblems? Julia and her bewilderment, her putting the embroidery of her daughter on the clothesline? Continuing to wander, going upstairs, the confusion, the police invading, the young women taken away, the brutality towards the women? Julia being hit and collapsing?
15. The motif throughout the film of Julia, the long shot in the countryside? The return? Her daughter’s appearance, the mask, revealing herself? That Julia and her daughter could be reunited only in their deaths?