FICUNAM 2023: Program Highlights Include Albert Serra Retrospective, Venice Winner SAINT OMER

FICUNAM has been revealing the program of its upcoming 13th edition, set to take place in Mexico City from June 1 to 11. Highlights so far include a couple of retrospectives, one dedicated to Spanish auteur and showman Albert Serra, the other to French writer and filmmaker Marguerite Duras.

Serra, whose latest, Pacifiction, topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s best of 2022 list, recently visited Mexico City to record a performance at the Tamayo museum, about the agony and eventual death of French King Louis XIV. The finished work, a video titled Roi Soleil, can be seen at said museum until June 4.

Serra will certainly return for more activities, although which of his films will be in the FICUNAM retrospective is yet to be announced. The same goes for the retrospective of Duras, whose films India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter were given the Criterion treatment last February.

Furthermore, FICUNAM confirmed the lineup of two competitive sections. The international competition has such renowned titles as Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, winner of the Silver Lion (Grand Jury Prize) at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, and Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, said to be influenced by Claire Denis’s Beau travail.

On the other hand, the Mexican competition features reporter and writer Diego Enrique Osorno’s new documentary La montaña, which follows the voyage of a group of indigenous Zapatistas to Europe, and Morelia 2022 winner La Colonial, a doc about a shelter house.

To check out the complete competitive selection, visit the festival’s official site.