Humberto Gómez Pérez

Mayan culture still thrives among the Tzotzil people of San Andrés Larrainzar, a town in southeastern Mexico. Each inhabitant shares responsibility for the collective well-being but only a few are called upon to serve the gods—often in a dream.

In a tsotsil community from south Mexico, where all the sounds come to life, the musical tradition of a family of musicians is transmitted from one generation to another: from the grandfather, who lives his last melodies; the son, who assumes the position of traditional musician; and the grandson who has the pleasure to continue with the musical memory of his family.

"Kuxlejal" means "Life" in the Tsotsil language, and Life and how to feel alive so as not to die, is the subject of this documentary that for the first time makes visible and thematizes the high rates of suicide among the youth of the native peoples. It is they who tell us in the first person their stories that unfold in a violently complex environment. The center of the film is the search for its own identity between its ancestral roots and the desire and need to be part of globalized modernity.