Called by the Mexican President himself, a rural teacher goes to work in a village that is dominated by a malevolent chieftain.
Cinematography
Gabriel Figueroa's black-and-white landscapes that breathe menace.
Acting
María Félix: elegance weaponized against rural brutality.
Direction
Fernández builds dread through silence, not spectacle.
Director
Emilio Fernández
María Félix
Rosaura Salazar
Carlos López Moctezuma
Regino Sandoval
Fernando Fernández
Felipe Navarro
Manuel Dondé
El Rengo
Columba Domínguez
Merceditas
Roberto Cañedo
Ayudante de la presidencia
Arturo Soto Rangel
Maestro Monroy
Agustín Isunza
Brísido
Eduardo Arozamena
Marcelino
Juan García
Esbirro de Regino
Carlos Múzquiz
Leonardo
Guillermo Cramer
Esbirro de Regino
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fernández and Figueroa shot this in just 21 days, yet it rivals Hollywood's most lavish noirs.
Regino Sandoval embodies the 'cacique' — rural strongmen who terrorized Mexican villages for generations, making this political horror uncomfortably real.
MX
