TIFF 2024 Review: Pedro Páramo – “the visual language is of a Hell on Earth worthy of Dante’s Inferno.”

Seeking to fulfill his mother’s dying wish for him to meet his father, Juan Preciado heads to Comala where ghosts roam the abandoned streets.

Desolation is the keyword that describes the setting that Juan Preciado finds himself in when being guided to the town of Comala to speak with his absentee father Pedro Páramo; to his surprise, he learns that his father has died and the place is uninhabited.  Or is it?  Apparitions appear that unravel the life of a mysterious patriarch who longs for his lost first love and becomes a tyrannical landowner responsible for the deaths of many.

After working as a cinematographer for Martin Scorsese, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and Ang Lee, Rodrigo Prieto has embarked on a feature film directing career with Pedro Páramo which is deeply influenced by the Mexican fascination and belief that families can be briefly reunited with the souls of deceased relatives.  In this particular case, it has more to do with the sins of the father inhabiting the desolate landscape that go from appearing in human form to becoming entangled bodies in the sky to being turned into mud.

It is amazing that society continues to exist considering the terrible things people are prepared to do to each other.  Bleakness prevails and the only light of humanity is the housekeeper who is somehow able to remain true to herself despite all that has happened.  The story is part mystery, a whole lot of horror, and flashbacks on top of flashbacks while the visual language is of a Hell on Earth worthy of Dante’s Inferno; this concept is reflected in the opening shot and the haunting voiceover.  In the end, the allegoric aspects overshadow the storytelling causing confusion rather than profoundness.

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15, 2024, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.