¡Que viva México!, Luis Estrada’s new political satire -- and his first film in almost a decade -- will have a wide theatrical release in Mexico, on Thursday, March 23. It’ll be distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing International.
¡Que viva México! was financed by Netflix but, ultimately, Estrada rejected the original plan to show the three-hour-plus picture only in select theaters. Netflix had made an exception to put Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths in commercial theaters, so Estrada sought the same for his film. When the company refused to do so, he himself bought the theatrical rights, though ¡Que viva México! will eventually join Netflix’s catalog.
¡Que viva México! promises to be in the same vein as other Estrada satires like Herod’s Law and Hell, now reflecting the times of Mexico’s current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, social polarization, and political correctness. Damián Alcázar and Joaquín Cosío each play three different characters, while Alfonso Herrera is the main “spoiled brat” in a story about a family dispute for an inheritance.