A country house, a closeted novelist, and a shotgun. What could go wrong?
A novelist travels to the country to learn the problems of a friend's shy son and runs into an intruder.
Direction
Ripstein's suffocating long takes trap you with the characters.
Acting
López Tarso's patriarch simmers with terrifying authority.
Cinematography
Shadow-drenched rural Mexico becomes its own character.
Director
Arturo Ripstein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of 1980s Mexican cinema's queer turn, Ripstein adapted from José Emilio Pacheco's story during the AIDS crisis's early denial in Latin America.
The title triple-meaning: Luis as outsider, Armando's hidden sexuality, and Mexico's marginalized underclass — all 'others' the privileged cannot acknowledge without destroying themselves.
MX
