'My films are social portraits of my country'

Carlos Cuarón landed in Mumbai on March 10. Barely a week before, his second feature film Besos de Azucar (Sugar Kisses) was premiered at a Mexican film festival to rave reviews. Cuarón is on his first visit to the country for a script-writing workshop organised by Mumbai Mantra and Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab.

If the writer-director's name doesn't ring a bell, watch Y Tu Mama Tambien, the ground-breaking film set in Mexico, which he co-wrote with his brother Alfonso, a leading light in Mexican cinema who also directed it. Y Tu...is a poignant study of relationships and sexual abandon and a comment on the country's socio-economic political scene. The Cuarón brothers along with Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu are credited with ushering in the Mexican New Wave.

Carlos knows virtually nothing about Indian cinema or, to be more precise, Hindi films. He is only vaguely familiar with Mira Nair. “Few years back I had met her during the awards season in the US. That's all I can say about my Indian connection,” he said. Had Rudo Y Cursi, released in 2008, made it to Indian theatres, people would have lapped it up. The bitter-sweet tale of two half-brothers of humble origin who make it big in Mexican soccer league, Rudo became the third highest grosser in the history of Mexican cinema, crossing even Y Tu..

“My films have universal themes rooted in specific contexts. They are social portraits of my country,” he says. While Rudo is also a comment on the drug menace and how it has ruined Mexico, Sugar Kisses, a love story on the lines of Romeo and Juliet, is set in downtown Mexico city where crime, poverty and corruption stalk the streets. “For my latest film I didn't rope in stars. The central characters are two anonymous 13-year-olds. I am the writer, director and producer of Sugar Kisses.”

Cuarón had to turn producer to stand up to powerful film distributors. “Though Mexican filmmakers get state sponsorships, the fate of the 70-odd films made every year is controlled by these distributors. So, I have decided to release Sugar by myself in local theatres by October,” he said.

The other formidable foe is Hollywood, which has elbowed out native produce. Cuarón is one of those rare few who enjoy critical acclaim and commercial success both at home and abroad. “My films are more popular in the US and UK than in Mexico. I feel the English-speaking audiences enjoy them more than my people,” he said.

After this workshop, Cuarón will go on a tourist trail. Who knows it might even spark new ideas when he discovers familiar elements in a foreign land.