PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain / Mexico
Diego Luna directing his fourth fiction film, A Mouthful of Ash
- The Mexican actor is working in his home country and Spain as he helms this immigration drama based on a book by Brenda Navarro, toplined by Anna Díaz and Adriana Paz
A Mouthful of Ash, a film helmed by Mexican actor-producer-director Diego Luna, is an adaptation of the novel Ceniza en la boca by his fellow countrywoman Brenda Navarro, published in 2022. It started shooting a few weeks ago in Madrid, before continuing in Barcelona and Mexico City. This will be the fourth fiction feature by Luna (who is known for his roles in Y tú mamá también and Just Walking [+see also:
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film profile], and who recently appeared in the Disney+ series Andor and Kiss of the Spider Woman, a remake of the 1985 title) while wearing a director’s hat, as he previously helmed Abel (presented as a Special Screening at Cannes and the winner of the Horizontes Latinos Award at San Sebastián), César Chávez and Mr. Pig (presented at Sundance), as well as the series Everything Will Be Fine, one of the short films in the omnibus feature Revolución and the documentary J.C. Chávez, with which he made his debut in 2007.
“Talking about migration has never been more relevant. I’m very excited to be able to tell this story. We’ve spent three years working to reach this moment, and I’m very lucky to have the chance to collaborate with this team, made up of diverse and enriching voices that are here for the right reasons,” remarked Luna.
The cast is made up of Anna Díaz (whom we saw recently in La cocina) and Adriana Paz, one of the four actresses who won awards at the most recent Cannes Film Festival for their work on Emilia Pérez [+see also:
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film profile], as well as Spanish thesp Irene Escolar (winner of the Goya Award for Best New Actress for Un otoño sin Berlín [+see also:
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interview: Itsaso Arana
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interview: Lois Patiño
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The plot (written by Abia Castillo, Diego Rabasa and the director himself) revolves around 21-year-old Lucila (played by Anna Díaz), who is attempting to find her place in the world while weighed down by family pressure, misogyny and racism. Together with her younger brother, Diego, she travels to Spain to reunite with her mother, Isabel (Adriana Paz), who emigrated eight years prior in search of a brighter future. Nevertheless, the young woman’s arrival will not exactly go without a hitch. The circumstances she is faced with each and every day constantly remind her of her origins, for better or for worse. This burden awakens within her the need to become independent, to live a life appropriate for her age, and to stop being a stand-in mother for her brother and getting by on badly paid jobs. Soon, however, she realises that reality cannot be moulded to fit her whims.
“Diego’s vision offered me the opportunity to form a community to reflect and show an essential and personal migratory experience that, far from being a dream come true, turns brutal owing to discrimination, impoverishment, injustice and an identity crisis,” states Inna Payán, a producer from Mexican firm Animal de Luz. Meanwhile, Valerie Delpierre, of Spain’s Inicia Films, sums up: “There’s a blend of poetry and brutality in Diego Luna’s gaze, a cinematic approach that reflects the essence of the book to a T.”
A Mouthful of Ash is a production by La Corriente del Golfo (Mexico), Animal de Luz (Mexico), Inicia Films (Spain), Perro Azul (Mexico) and EFD Studios (Mexico).
(Translated from Spanish)
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