Identifying Features

Identifying Features is an extremely raw drama about the harsh life in Mexico, which is very far from us in terms of its environment and mentality, so it's hard to imagine how difficult and dangerous life is there. The mother's unrelenting determination to find her missing son is truly admirable and Mercedes Hernández plays her role in a very convincing way. Sequences of everyday life are interspersed at times with magical scenes and imagery that added to the film's uneasy atmosphere. I consider the most powerful scenes to be the conversation between the mothers at the beginning of the film and the final denouement, which definitely did not leave me cold. (10/07/2020)

I've known about northern Mexico for quite a long time that it's a very dangerous area to live in, but Fernanda Valadez's debut convinced me that I had no idea what horrors are committed there. Identifying Features is a drama in which, paradoxically, not much happens, but this is probably one of the film's main strengths. A mother's journey to the border with the United States to find out what happened to her son, who disappeared without a trace, may seem to lull the viewer. This is also supported by the sometimes almost poetic images of the local landscape. However, carefully dosed slightly unsettling situations add an electrifying tension to the story, culminating in a completely unexpected resolution that will literally take your breath away. Even now, many thoughts about what I saw still resonate in my head. I must admit that it was an emotionally powerful experience. (85%) (11/07/2020)