One of Cortez’s conquistadors is shipwrecked on a Mexican shore – in the present day. He is disconcerted not only by how society has changed, but by the spectre of colonialism, which he had known in its moment of glory. “Must I listen to these ghosts for all eternity?” he asks from inside his nightmare. In this bold dystopian film, part reality and part magic realism, Rodrigo Reyes invokes the ghosts of modern Mexico: forgotten people, families victimized by ubiquitous violence, hordes of migrants… As his proud conquistador wanders through foggy forests, shattered cities and the out-of-control emissions of the 21st century, he asks what kind of world he helped create. Is this the meaning of progress and civilization? (Apolline Caron-Ottavi)

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