The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced today the 21-feature lineup for its TIFF Docs section, including the world premiere of the Mexican film The Freedom of Fierro / La libertad de Fierro by Santiago Esteinou, as the only Latin American entry this year.
A follow-up to Esteinou’s 2014 documentary The Years of Fierro / Los años de Fierro, which also had its world premiere at TIFF, The Freedom of Fierro narrates the story of César Fierro, who transitions to freedom after 40 years on death row in Texas for a crime he did not commit. He spent most of his life in solitary confinement, deprived of any physical contact with other human beings. Deported back to Mexico after four decades, Fierro has just become a free man and needs to rebuild his life. Despite all the surmounting challenges, he remains stoically determined to find true freedom.
In The Years of Fierro, Esteinou documented the grave miscarriage of justice that led to César's decades-long imprisonment. In The Freedom of Fierro, the focus shifts to Fierro’s release in 2020 and his challenging journey of reintegration into society, reconnecting with his community, and reclaiming his identity.
Esteinou is a documentarian and producer from Mexico City. He studied cinematography at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica and Temple University in Philadelphia. He later completed a master's degree in Human Rights and Democracy at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. He and Fierro have been friends for over 15 years, having met while Esteinou was preparing his master's thesis on Fierro’s case, which became the documentary feature The Years of Fierro and his debut feature film. More recently, Esteinou has directed the feature films The Woman of Stars and Mountains.
The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will take place from September 5-15 in Canada.
