When he was just eight years old, Mexican performer Rogelio Ojeda did not wonder what death was, nor when it would come to the living beings around him. He had that awakening until he starred in ‘Monstruo de Xibalba’, the production with which he began his curiosity about what it means to lose someone in a country like Mexico.
“After the film my curiosity began. I began to wonder a little more about death, what’s after it and what happens when you reach that point,” explains the actor in an interview with EFE, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on December 4.
The film follows Rogelio, who plays a boy, bearing the same name, who is sent to Mérida from Mexico City after his parents’ divorce. It will be with this trip that the protagonist will have the company of his aunt, the children of the town and an old man whom he will mistake for an animal-killing monster.
Ojeda, now 12 years old, confesses to feeling a little “embarrassed” (ashamed) to see himself on the big screen, but above all “very changed” after four years of filming the project.
At the same time, the minor suggests to audiences of his age and even younger that they should watch the film to learn more about such a complex subject as death, but from a kinder tone.
In Mexico, according to the film’s first-time director, Manuela Irene, it is difficult to find productions that obtain an age rating for all audiences and that talk about childhood with the same imagination that children have at home.
“I love that many people have pointed out to me that it’s a very peculiar film for children, especially being Mexican cinema, which doesn’t often deal with these themes,” says the young filmmaker.
He also admits that initially that was not the intention, as he only “wanted to portray what vacations are and their beauty for a child”.
Monster of Xibalba, an endearing film
During the little more than 75 minutes of the film, Rogelio is not only accompanied by animals and humans, but by what – for Irene – is yet another character, the landscape of cenotes and jungle characteristic of the Yucatan peninsula, a region that is currently threatened by the massive development of tourism and other industries in the area.
“I am very interested in nature as a theme(…) I have to make these films to see them in the bleak future that awaits us and to portray the richness that was there,” stresses the director on how she believes her debut feature could be seen in a distant time when Yucatan may no longer exist as a biodiverse territory.
Even so, Irene is “optimistic” and hopes that we can “turn the corner, retrace our steps and discover other ways” to resolve the situation that affects not only Mexico, but many biomes around the world.
“I’m sure that, with so many incredible things we have achieved as humanity, if we put the same energy into it, a relationship of respect and reciprocity with nature would be possible,” argues the director of ‘Monster of Xibalba’.
Rogelio, although he is now “older”, still enjoys himself among the Yucatecan cedars, although it also distresses him to think that someday those landscapes in which he enjoys himself will no longer exist.
“(Yucatán) is a beautiful and marvelous place, with a lot of purity. If it were to disappear, I would feel very sad,” said the very young actor while playing with the laces of his sweatshirt, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
