Elke Franke

In this deeply moving dialogue between mother and son, Mexican Tzotzil director Xun Sero confronts his past with honesty, understanding and forgiveness. Growing up without a father, he blamed his mother for the paternal absence in his life; this, for him, became his first act of violence against the feminine and his own mother. Societal pressure and shame prevented his mother from speaking about the realities of violence in her childhood and within her partnership with the director's father. Guided by the desire to understand who his mother is, Sero has created an extraordinarily sensitive first film where both mother and son open a dialogue in an attempt at self-discovery. Bravely, together, they open the door to a room of darkness and unknowns and begin to walk down a path of healing.

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"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.

Is there hope for love and being loved? A teenager embarks on a journey of self-discovery, navigating the ups and downs of life as she searches for answers to this profound question.