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ADIÓS, AMOR: An Honest Portrait of Sinaloa at the 23rd FICM

Omar Sosa

With director Indra Villaseñor in attendance, the press conference for Adiós, amor (2024) was held during the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

The presentation was also attended by producer Guillermo Pérez de la Mora, production designer Emma González, actress Margarita Higuera, actors Ernesto Rocha and Nick Angiuly, and Ángeles Castro, director of the National School of Cinematic Arts (ENAC) at UNAM.

The director said that the town where the film takes place, Costa Azul, Sinaloa, is the same one that inspired her. It is a small municipality that she knows well because she has spent a lot of time there with her family. “It all stems from questioning whether the representation I have seen of Sinaloa in the movies aligns with what I have experienced in so many years of life,” she added.

Actor Ernesto Rocha said he was very excited to return to Sinaloa after 15 years to shoot a film that shows the beauty of the state, its people, and its traditions from a very sensitive perspective.

“When I read the script, it was very genuine. I felt that Indra had created a great portrait,” Margarita Higuera added regarding the representation of Sinaloa in Adiós, amor. She also praised the director for her openness to listening to and incorporating the opinions of others.

The filmmaker mentioned that she wanted to make a love story without ignoring all the issues that are interwoven with the context in which the story takes place. One of the central themes of the film is the different types of masculinity.

Something that caught the director's attention was how these men, who don't allow themselves any sentimentalism in their daily lives, take off their tough masks at night and play banda music. “They cry, they sing, and they hurt. They express everything they've repressed their whole lives,” she said about the essence of banda music.

“In the end, it’s a film about resilience. About what it means to resist a violent environment and still want to live, smile, and fight.”

Actor Nick Angiuly said, “Music, rather than being a means of escape to isolate ourselves, generates human contact.” He pointed out the special bond he has with music due to his love of composing and playing the guitar.

“No one had filmed there because not many people even know it exists, which is how we end up ignoring people who live in certain types of situations,” said Indra Villaseñor about the feeling of filming in a new location for the cameras.

People opened their homes and gave us a place to sleep because they all believed that this film would bring the visibility needed to those who live in oblivion," she said. She thanked the people of Costa Azul, who were a fundamental part of the film, for making the shoot possible and providing them with accommodation.

The director began writing this film in her spare time, simply for fun, until she realized it was something that needed to be told. “ Part of the portraits there are of women, sometimes strong, sometimes full of resignation, but always fighting and resisting. It has to do with the real women who inspired me to write,” she said.

Something fun and very special about the production of the film was when the director realized that she couldn't afford any band songs with her budget. After telling her aunt about this situation, she offered a solution: ask the people for an original song.

The audience's response surprised her because she soon received a video of a young man playing norteño music with his friends, and she immediately realized that, without knowing it, this was what she was looking for.

Adiós, amor won the ENAC graduate debut film competition, where it was in competition with thirteen other projects. It then participated in Impulso Morelia 8, where it received support from Estudios Churubusco. This film is the Guadalajara-born director's debut feature.

Deported after eleven years, Chuy returns to his hometown in Sinaloa to rediscover it steeped in drug violence. There, he reunites with Chano, his childhood friend turned hitman, with whom he unearths the secret that caused him to leave and which he cannot escape. In the complex context of Sinaloa culture, Chuy tries to find his place in the world.