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From a landmark of Mexican magical realism literature to a breathtaking Cinematic experience that reawakens the soul of a cherished classic for new generations.
Juan Rulfo’s ‘Pedro Páramo’ is one of the most influential pieces of fictional literature in Mexican history, shaping pieces such as One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. This led to multiple adaptations across the years. The most recent one is directed by Rodrigo Prieto and written by Mateo Gil.
Starring Manuel García Rulfo as Pedro Páramo and Tenoch Huerta as Juan Preciado. The film perfectly recreates the unsettling unease, and disorientation of the book while using the power of Cinema to enhance scenes and characters alongside its themes of power, corruption, and the destructive nature of human desire. Allowing us to dive deeper into the Mexican Classic.
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Visual Symphony From a Bygone Era
Set between the 1870s and the 1920s, Pedro Páramo portrays the gorgeous town life in The Porfiriato and how the effects of power and violence can affect it even beyond the grave.
Prieto used camera angles to increase the eerie yet nostalgic atmosphere that resides in Comala, staying true to the book’s nonlinear plot. He uses lightning to depict the isolation and abandonment that covers the down in the present, restraining to nighttime and shadows to enhance the confusion and the desperation that Juan Preciado experiences. The same ones that mirror the relationship with the afterlife and folklore seen in towns across the country.
That same lightning makes Media Luna feel so familiar and welcome successfully recreating that cozy feeling that the Mexican Haciendas, The locations were beautifully selected across San Luis Potosí allowing the scenes to emit the vibes of visiting family that connects with many in Mexico.
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Haunting Exploration of Memory
Pedro Páramo explores the meaning of memory, which is not only a mere nostalgic recollection but also shows how it distorts and shapes perception to alter one’s understanding of reality. Playing with the borders of legacy and oblivion, the film questions the very essence of time, manifesting as an active presence that refuses to be forgotten.
Jumping abruptly between time, the film allows viewers to connect with Comala and its history while experiencing Juan’s desperation. These shifts occur so often and swiftly that it takes a little while to identify which character is on screen. Yet they help with the intrigue and uncertainty that the story wouldn’t work without them, reminding us that time isn’t linear but a fluid narrative and every moment bounds back on itself.
The film maintains mostly fidelity to Rulfo’s book. Following its original non-linear structure with just a few changes to storylines. It maintains its unique setting and rich setting. Successfully enhancing the book’s vibe with unique set designs, that immense viewers into the town. Even though his relation to Juan Rulfo is distant, choosing Manuel García Rulfo to play Pedro Paramo gives the film a generational tone which is seen in how passionately accurate his portrayal is.
Comala’s essence lies in its conflict between the physical world and the spectral remains of its past. Existing in a state of suspended time, where memories coexist with the present. Every encounter feels deepened in untold stories, each carrying the weight of lost voices. Forgotten voices echo through the living, lingering, shaping Comala’s present even after anguish. Memory becomes both a prison and a portal, keeping characters in their own legacies, all while simultaneously offering glimpses into the truths they cannot escape. And where time becomes both a chain and a key, unlocking the past while trapping the present in its grip.
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Folkloric Realism
A significant aspect of Pedro Páramo is Rulfo’s use and inspiration of the Mexican Folklore more specifically those local legends found in more isolated towns across the country.
Mexico’s folklore is extremely rich, with each town having its own urban legends. Expanding from the Nahual of Mesoamerican cultures to The Island of the Dolls in the 1950s. These Legends have shaped how Mexicans live their lives and how they deal with death. Although mostly overshadowed by the more well-known beings such as La Llorona and El Charro Negro, Mexican folklore has hundreds of thousands of different legends that expand across the many different eras of Mexican History.
The Porfiriato era was one marked by modernization and great violence, sparking the Mexican Revolution. So it makes great sense that a significant part of lingering spirits derive from such. Especially in a rural small town like Comala. The inaccessibility of such towns alongside their insularity enable for more intimate legends that allow for more personal hauntings. Legends such as the old town priest haunting the church, the neighbor’s daughter gone missing, or even The Woman with Chicken Feet that lives in the hills mark many small towns. Such souls are scattered across the streets, stronger at night but still present during the day, haunted by the violence that shaped the town.
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Throughout the film Mateo Gil and Rodrigo Prieto faithfully adapt the way folklore is merged into the existence in Comala, capturing the town’s violent past and its forlorn future. Creating an atmosphere of haunting desolation, its environment carrying the weight of its fractured morality. Comala acting as their purgatory, consequence of the corruption and patriarchy that ran the town. They chose Gustavo Santaolalla as the composer, who with over 30 traditional musicians from different Mexican states creates a minimalist score that consists of dissonant harmonies and irregular rhythms evoking an ethereal and haunting soundscape.
Netflix’s adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s ‘Pedro Páramo’ is a masterpiece of Mexican Cinema. Encapsulating the haunting beauty of Rulfo’s world, once again taking audiences to a dissolving reality where time has lost its value, to a place corrupted by hypocrisy and corruption. Reminding us that the poison we spread will eventually seep into our own veins. That pain and vengeance are well capable of staining the same air that once emitted hope and perseverance. Comala’s misfortune wasn’t its generational suffering, it wasn’t the religious and institutional decline, nor its slow decay into isolation, not even the severe drought and exhaustion of the land that led to an agricultural decline. Comala’s true misfortune was birthing Pedro Páramo.
By Mario Martinez Ignacio
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Author
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Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
