Las leyes del deseo: sexualidad, anomia y nación en el cine de Carlos Reygadas

Abstract

This article offers a discussion of the films of Mexican director Carlos Reygadas: Japón (2002), Batalla en el cielo (2005), Stellet Licht (2007) and Post tenebras lux (2012). Drawing on the categories of urbanías and locality as formulated by Geoffrey Kantaris in his analysis of contemporary Mexican cinema, this article offers a socio-political reading of the films of Reygadas. Based on the multiple references to normative transgression that are found in the films at multiple levels, which range from sexuality to culture and crime, I conclude that the main problematic that informs the works of Reygadas is the loss of social cohesion that affects contemporary Mexico, and the resulting context of anomie that this phenomenon produces.