Virginie Surdej on lensing Mexico 86

Following Nuestras Madres, Cesar Diaz’s first film, which was awarded the Camera d’Or at the Festival de Cannes 2019, Virginie Surdej reunites with the Guatemalan director for a personal, partly autobiographical film. Set in Mexico City in 1986, the story follows Maria (played by Bérénice Bejo), a Guatemalan revolutionary activist, exiled in Mexico City for many years, who is reunited with her 10-year-old son Marco. And so begins a life torn between her love as a mother and her determination as a political activist.
Filming took place over 35 days, with 25 days in Guatemala for the interiors and 10 days in Mexico, mainly for the exteriors. The logistics were more extensive than the previous film, with a lot more interiors recreating the 80s, and an intent to light them in the style of that period.

The director’s original intention was for the film to be a mix of a period piece, a family film and a genre film (thriller / detective), using Sydney’s “Running on Empty” as a reference.

To meet these visual challenges, Virginie was joined by her Belgian gaffer Tim Janssens. This film marked their second collaboration and Virginie praises his flexibility and aesthetic creativity, despite the vagaries of the project. Mainly in regard to the fact that the equipment was held up in customs for several weeks. But eventually solutions were found by sourcing local equipment. The kit consisted of kino flo tubes and a few nanlux evoke 1200s, which proved very useful to push in daylight from outside. And meters of colored gels ranging from green to sodium orange, to the electric blue of neon lights, creating a color palette faithful to this time period in Mexico. As for the camera Virginie chose the Alexa 35 in combination with Atlas Orion anamorphic lenses, which offer the advantage of being fairly soft, without too many optical defects and are budget friendly.
Virginie wanted to create the look of the film in camera, and quickly found what she was looking for in the camera’s internal LUTs aided by the camera’s own library of textures. The highly contrasted and colorful image prompted Virginie and Tim to light more than usual, mostly with soft top lights.
As the look had already been well defined during the shoot, color grading with Thomas Bouffioulx was quick and easy.

Most of the film was shot listed prior to shooting, by going out on location and coming up with ideas for staging, movement and framing. Virginie and the director were joined at this stage by the production designer and the assistant director. In order to save money most exteriors were storyboarded as to precisely determine every prop, car and extras needed. An example of how their preparation paid off is the assassination scene that starts off in an open-air market and climaxes in the Mexico City subway. It shows the radical choices that were made in term of choosing a clear point of view within the financial constraints.

Another remarkable scene features a car chase through the streets of Mexico City involving the political activist couple and their son, who are being pursued by the Guatemalan secret services. To film this scene, a district of Mexico City was blocked off during 3 days. A detailed storyboard was drawn up in collaboration with a team of stuntmen and precision drivers. The actor behind the wheel tuned out to be a very good driver, allowing for a lot more coverage on him than expected. While the over the shoulder shots, involving precise and dangerous driving, were done by the stunt team. The film’s few action sequences referencing genre films, were meticulously executed with greater resources to lend credibility to the violent political context the director wanted to show.

Virginie says that in this kind of scene, the focus is much more on the frame and camera placement than to the lighting effects, which become very secondary! She confides that she wasn’t used to filming action scenes, which are highly technical and codified, but that she took great pleasure in trying her hand at the exercise, and that she’d like to do it again!

As with the previous film, director César Diaz had strong images in mind from the very start, which served as the basis for formal discussions throughout the film. Such as the shot during the car chase where the mother (Bérénice Bejo), points a gun at her own son, to prevent him falling into the hands of the secret services. This image is a defining moment in the film, one of great physical and emotional violence, which sums up the tension felt throughout the film.

The film was screened as part of the chef op’ en lumière festival in Chalon sur Saone, after having toured
international festivals, starting with a selection at the Locarno Festival in August 2024.

Director: César Diaz
DOP : Virginie Surdej
1st camera assistant: Agathe Corniquet
Gaffer : Tim Janssens
machinist : Loco Gonzalez
colorist : Thomas Bouffioulx
Production: Need Productions – Tripode Productions – Menuetto Film

Camera: Arri Alexa 35 from EyeLite Brussel
optics: Atlas Orion anamorphic x 2 lenses