by CYNTHIA ARVIDE
(WNN) Mexico City, MEXICO, LATIN AMERICA: A 2012 film depiction of a teenage girl in Mexico City creates awareness about a very real problem in Mexico that comes with fatal consequences – youth bullying. Teenage bullying is a serious problem that can leave lasting scars say today’s experts.
In the film, 17-year-old Alejandra (played by Mexican actor Tessa Ia) is surrounded by her classmates. They won’t let her leave her chair as they bring her a birthday cake. For a second she thinks it’s sweet they remembered her birthday. Then they force her head down on the cake and make her eat it. She quickly realizes with searing intensity it’s not what she thought. We see her face change into utter revolt but they won’t let her go. She is forced into eating more of it while they laugh at her until she starts throwing up.
That was a scene from the recently released Mexican film, “After Lucía,” written and directed by Michel Franco. Alejandra has lost her mother in a car accident and moves with her father from their home in a small coastal town to Mexico’s urban capital. At her new school Alejandra meets ‘new friends’ and tries to fit in, but catastrophe strikes. She is invited to join a group of schoolmates for a weekend house party where she ends up drinking too much and having sex with a boy. Little does she know he records the encounter with his cellphone. A couple of days later the video has been shared online making Alejandra an endless target of her classmates’ harassment, mockery and aggression.
As humiliation and exclusion follows, this seventeen-year-old is in for a spiral of silent suffering and cruelty.
Franco’s award winning docudrama was chosen as this year’s winner of the Cannes Film Festival for ‘Un Certain Regard’. Literally translated as ‘A Certain Outlook’, this award was created to recognize young talent that encourages innovative and daring works. “After Lucía” was also tagged this year for nomination as one of the up-and-coming 2012 film selections for the, U.S. based, Academy Awards Oscars in Foreign Language Film.
Exploring the issues of bullying in a crude, yet honest and blatant way, “After Lucía” is the first time a film in Mexico has put a large spotlight on this form of harassment and violence. Using subtleties to pressure peers, bullying can be an all too familiar tactic for children who want to maintain power over others. And it can be dangerous.
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