Menuetto Film
La Civil offers a jarring look into the life of a Mexican woman, whose world is turned upside down after her daughter is kidnapped by a cartel. Based on a real woman’s story.
Directed by: Teodora Ana Mihai
Year: 2021
Country: Belgium, Romania, Mexico
Length: 145 minutes
Cielo is a Mexican woman who lives with her teenage daughter Laura. After Laura goes out for the night and doesn’t return, Cielo is approached by two men, who demand 150.000 pesos and her ex-husband’s car from her, if she wishes to ever see her daughter again. Although Laura’s parents find a way to pay the ransom, the cartel refuses to return their daughter. When Cielo is ignored by both the police system and the military, she decides to take matters in her own hands. In a brutally thrilling journey, featuring violence, explosions and more dangers on the way, she risks it all in order to get her daughter back by herself.
With La Civil, Romanian-Belgian director Teodora Ana Mihai creates a narrative debut that lets the audience experience the effects of the cartel drug war on Mexican mothers. In a 145-minute emotional rollercoaster, she presents the boundless love a mother has for her daughter, highlighting a variety of emotions.
La Civil mostly offers something vastly different from what we’ve seen blockbuster thrillers do with the subject. While the film does feature extremely tense scenes with some of the most realistic special effects out there, it also highlights several tender and intimate emotional moments to reveal the way the situation affects the human psyche.
With her performance as Cielo, actress Arcelia Ramírez brings the heart and soul to this tale. From the get-go, through the way Ramírez looks at the actress who plays her daughter, it’s very apparent that Cielo is a loving and caring mother. Even in a brief scene, before all hell breaks loose, we get to feel what kind of person Cielo is and what her relationship is with the people around her. This is a foreboding for the excellent performance the actress delivers in this very complex role. Cielo goes through various transformations, experiencing a range of feelings such as hopelessness, fury, powerlessness, unbearable sadness and grief. Ramírez is able to portray all of that in the most realistically human way possible. Her facial expressions are key in this film, as they offer a window to the soul of the character she portrays.
It’s noticeable that La Civil is a very important project for Mihai and that she has delved deeply into the subject. La Civil not only offers insight into a person affected by the situation it presents, but also in a more formal way investigates the culture surrounding it. However, once the film widens its scope from an intimate character study to an examination of something bigger, it becomes slightly emotionally detached. For the entire first half, the focus of this story fully lies on its protagonist, causing the audience to feel a strong bond with this character. During the mid-point of the film, La Civil decides to explore bigger ideas, which is understandable, considering all of this story is rooted in a gritty reality. However, once the narrative returns to a full focus on Cielo, it becomes apparent that the connection that the viewer felt to her character isn’t as strong as it used to be earlier on.
Nevertheless, the film is worth the watch for its amazing central performance and a lot of impactful scenes that have you thinking about this situation many have been in and are currently going trough in real life, long after the film has ended.
La Civil is based on the experiences of Miriam Rodríguez Martínez, a woman who, just like Cielo, had her daughter kidnapped by a cartel. Martínez worked as an activist, reporting on the issues regarding this subject and searching for the disappeared. After hearing about her story, Mihai reached out to Martínez, to hear her tell her story herself. Mihai initially wanted to make La Civil as a documentary, but decided on turning this story into a narrative feature instead, to prevent the involved’s safety from being endangered. Mihai worked on this story for seven years, doing research and reflecting on it. Martínez managed to hunt down at least 10 of her daughter’s killers. On may 10 2017, Mother’s Day, Miriam Rodríguez Martínez was murdered on her doorstep, weeks after hunting down her final target.
La Civil premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard selection, where it won the Un Certain Regard Prize of Courage.
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