So much that premiered on last year’s festival circuit needs a bit of breathing room to have its second theatrical life—when the world was burning, we couldn’t spend too much time thinking about a documentary line-up. But Rodrigo Reyes’ 499, which won Best Cinematography in Tribeca 2020’s documentary section, deserves that moment. A hybrid doc-fiction feature that conflates Spain’s colonial past with Mexico’s modern maladies, it opens in New York on August 20 via Cinema Guild.
Thus a somewhat remarkable trailer blending opulent, staged scenes with talking-head material and on-location photography—plus the approval of Jim Jarmusch. As our own review says, “499 is often as riveting as it is stunning to consume: a spiritual journey punctuated with inhumane acts of violence intertwined with a certain national identity. Reyes offers an ambitious and unflinching portrait of contemporary Mexico that provides a vague answer regarding the endgame of the violence in the country.”
Find the preview below: