In All the Fires, first-time director Mauricio Calderón Rico rises to the challenge of making a sensitive coming of age film with LGBTQ+ interest and a personal style.
All the countries in the world have their coming of age films, dealing with that dark, conflicted and very cinematographic stage adolescents pass through on their way to adulthood. Alas, Hollywood style has permeated local ways, transforming teenagers into elven beings – with not a pimple in sight – who manage their conflicts (all solvable) with a minimum of yelling and a good dose of romance. All the Fires is the Mexican answer to this glamorized teenage universe.
Bruno (Sebastian Rojano), the protagonist, is a teenager who lives with his young widowed mother Inés (Ximena Ayala). He’s rather quiet and solitary, sometimes malicious, with a rather non-descript appearance. His adolescent rebellion is channeled into a fascination –which has not yet become a mania– for fire. He is seduced by flames: how to cause them, video them, share them on the Internet. But he is not interested in their effects, as an arsonist would be. He also feels pressured to define his gender identity in an environment in which LGBTQ+ is repudiated or at least silenced. The attempt of a kiss by his best friend Ian (Ari López) and the presence of Gerardo (Héctor Illanes), a man interested in his mother, trigger him to escape the city and go find Daniela (Natalia Quiroz), an admirer of his videos.
All the Fires is the first feature film by Mauricio Calderón Rico, author of five short films that have been widely screened at festivals. Calderón Rico shows sensitivity and temperance, avoiding to sweeten Bruno’s relationships, and he portrays them with enough space to keep them from being suffocating. Although the use of fire as a metaphor –of passion, of oblivion, of finishing something– is excessive, there are moments when it is mesmerizing. The scene with a man for whom Bruno lights a cigarette is notable: the timing indicates an offering and complicity at the same time.
By fleeing Mexico City, Bruno also escapes from the complexities of the male role in his own home and in his life. In this new environment, male bonding is established with soccer, sweat, and beer, regardless of age. The film skillfully handles this irony and suggests that even permissive adults are simply compartmentalizing their prejudices.
The director, who prepared the film for about three years, probably decided to stay with the same leading actor he originally chose. Bruno’s behavior is understandable at 14 years old, but naive for a 16-year-old inhabitant of Mexico City. It’s amazing that he does not know the word “queer”, often spelled “cuir” in Spanish. As usually happens with coming of age stories, Bruno is almost always on the screen. The director only allows himself the freedom to do a few scenes without him, with the result that they automatically feel like a conspiracy. This highly focused narrative makes it more plausible that we never see the despair Bruno’s mother must feel at his “escape”. In a country where 30,000 people have disappeared in the last three years – most of them teenagers – this kind of running away from home acquires alarming dimensions.
All the Fires may not be an out-of-control wildfire, but it is a promising flame about teens and LGBTQ+ issues. It is remarkable how cinematographer Miguel Escudero Torres handles fire, making it seem cozy, threatening or fun depending on the occasion. The film was produced with evident care, affection and a low budget by the independent collective Colmena, which presented the feature Mostro in Locarno in 2021.
Director, screenplay: Mauricio Calderón Rico
Cast: Sebástian Rojano, Ximena Ayala, Héctor Illanes, Ari López, Natalia Quiroz, Hannah Romen, Antonio Fortier, Iliana Donatlán.
Producers: Daniel Loustaunau, Francisco Sánchez, Araceli Velázquez
Cinematography: Miguel Escudero Torres
Editing: Marlén Ríos-Farjat
Music: Turista Universal, Santiago Mijares, Jorge Santos, Mónica Saldaña, Stefanía Kirnbauer, Héctor Vázquez
Direct Sound: Irina Guadarrama Olhovich
Sound design: Gabriel Reyna, Pablo Betancourt
Production companies: Colectivo Colmena (Colectivo de Creadores Audiovisuales SAPI de CV)
Venue: Locarno Film Festival (Cineasti del presente)
In Spanish
96 minutes
