Rojo amanecer y La ley de Herodes: cine político de la transición mexicana

Abstract

With the election of the opposition candidate, Vicente Fox, over the historical regime of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) on 2 July 2002, Mexico took a significant step towards its transition to democracy. The defeat of the official party, which had ruled Mexico since 1929, was a product of a long struggle undertaken by several sectors of Mexican society. Political parties, social and cultural movements, and civil society at large, were key factors in achieving democratic change. This article seeks to analyse two essential films that shed light on the Mexican transition to democracy: Rojo amanecer (Jorge Fons, 1989), the first narrative film to deal with the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968, and La ley de Herodes (Luis Estrada, 1999), a political farce about the corruption of the PRI government. These films not only prevailed against state censorship and boycotting attempts, but also galvanized civil society, the mass media, and the cinematographic community to strive for freedom of speech and acceleration of the process of democratization. These two films highlight the importance of the battles against State authoritarism waged by contemporary Mexican cinema.