Rotterdam 2026 Review: TEKENCHU, THE RITE OF THE NAHUALES, Beware Of The Were-Birds

Mexico has a rich tradition of genre films, both serious and outrageous, and that shouldn't be a surprise because the country has an incredible selection of mythologies and histories to pull inspiration from. Back in 2020, the Mexican director Carlos Matienzo Serment made a short film called Tekenchu, featuring the mythical half-bird-half-man creature called the "Nahual", which can be found in stories from all over Mexico. That short won awards at several festivals, so Matienzo Serment decided to re-tell his story in extended form, as a full-length feature. He just finished it, it's called Tekenchu: The Rite of the Nahuales and it had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last week. And it is very much worth checking out.

In the film, we follow Gabriel, a man who stumbles, bleeding, out of the dense forests of inland Mexico. He is found by two women who nurse him back to health. But... they also lock his door at night and warn him not to go out, as dangerous monsters walk through the forest after dark. Is he held prisoner, and what happened to him?
We also follow Vicente, a federal policeman who has arrived in a nearby village, sent from the big city. His task: to investigate the murder of several children. A gruesome crime, as some of the bodies have been found mutilated and with teeth missing. Vicente discovers everyone is tight-lipped, and at the burial of a victim, people place small statues on the corpses for protection. Statues of the Nahual, the legendary shapeshifters who can change into birds...

Vicente's investigation drives most of the plot, but now and then we switch to Gabriel who is increasingly convinced something terrible is about to happen. Will Vicente find Gabriel before (more) harm comes to him? And what is the thing roaming through the forest at night? Tekenchu: The Rite of the Nahuales is Carlos Matienzo Serment's first feature film, and it has become a very pleasant mix of crime thriller and creature feature. It was made with little money, but it doesn't look it. Make-up, lighting and camerawork are slick and the film easily looks ten times its budget. It helps, of course, that most of the story plays out in forests at night, allowing for your imagination to fill in a lot of gaps. And the actors do good work selling the premise: Gerardo Trejoluna plays investigator Vicente with quiet dignity, and Gerardo Oñate (who co-wrote the script) is a believably despairing Gabriel. Alejandra Herrera and Caraly Sánchez are suitably enigmatic as the healers. Everyone has backstories, and none of them feel like filler.

Carlos Matienzo Serment sidesteps all low-budget pitfalls and gives us a film with a decent drama at its center. I'm happy if a monster film shows me an interesting creature, and Tekenchu: The Rite of the Nahuales has a good one, from a mythology we don't often see in films. On top of that, the setting is intriguing as is the lot of the speech you hear: parts of the film are in Téenek, a local language developed from ancient Aztec and Maya. It's all layers of icing on a cake that wasn't too bad to begin with.

Shorts that are developed into feature films often feel stretched too thin, or have unnecessary add-ons. But at a mere 80 minutes of length, Tekenchu: The Rite of the Nahuales doesn't overstay its welcome. It's an interesting little genre film, and I liked it a lot.