Diego Enrique Osorno is a first-rate reporter and filmmaker when it comes to tackling Mexico’s complicated political and sociocultural issues. Now, Osorno follows up his 2019 Netflix limited series “1994” with “La Montaña,” which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam this weekend.
“La Montaña” follows Osorno and cinematographer María Secco on a voyage across the Atlantic with Squad 421 of the EZLN, or Zapatista Army Of Liberation Nacional, during the COVID-19 pandemic as the group sails to Europe in hopes of finding allies in their political struggle to build a better world.
Here’s an official synopsis for “La Montaña”:
In 1994, a group of indigenous peoples in the mountains of Chiapas, Southern Mexico demonstrated with an uprising that rebellion against the system was still possible. Almost thirty years later, that same organisation, the Zapatista Army of Liberation Nacional (EZLN), set sail aboard a hundred-year-old ship and voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe in the midst of a global pandemic.
With only the Director and Cinematographer invited onboard, each of the seven indigenous people of different generations, intimately recount their rich history and the revolutionary achievements of the EZLN. The ultimate goal of this independent army is to spread the message that in order to change the world, we must first change the way we look at it.
Osorno’s other recent work includes the 2022 short “La evalución” and the 2019 doc “Vaquero del mediodía,” about the disappearance of Osorno’s long-lost friend, poet Samuel Noyola.
Look at the poster and trailer for “La Montaña” below. The film has its world premiere this Sunday, January 29.
