Mexican film Identifying Features / Sin señas particulares, the debut feature by Fernanda Valadez, was announced this evening as the winner of the inaugural Best International Feature Award at the 30th Annual Edition of the Gotham Awards presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP, soon to be renamed as the Gotham Film & Media Institute).
In her acceptance speech, director Valadez said that in “these crazy, difficult, dark times, for the whole world, for Mexico, for the United States, I think film is an amazing tool to help us understand each other, because it gives us the opportunity to live a little in someone else’s shoes.”
The acclaimed and gripping Mexican border thriller co-produced and co-written by Astrid Rondero was also the winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay awards at the Sundance Film Festival, where it had its world premiere a year ago, as well as a winner at numerous international film festivals including Morelia, San Sebastian, Thessaloniki, Zurich, Stockholm. The film opens in North American virtual cinemas next Friday, January 22.
Identifying Features tells the story of middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez), who has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., in hopes of finding work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth.
At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted in her striking debut feature a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, constructed equally of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion.
