After Lucia

Después de Lucía

A harrowing and all too believable film looking at the relationship between a father and daughter.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.


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  • Director-Screenwriter Michel Franco
  • Producer Michel Franco, Marco Polo Constandse, Elias Menassé, Fernando Rovzar
  • With Tessa Ia, Hernán Mendoza, Gonzálo Vega Sisto
  • Mexico 2012
  • 102 mins
  • Sales BAC Films

Michel Franco follows his debut feature Daniel & Ana with another searing parable about hidden violence and the failure to communicate. After the tragic death of his wife in a car accident, Roberto and his teenage daughter Alejandra move to Mexico City looking for a fresh start. Alejandra assimilates quickly, befriending a clique of rich cool kids at her new school while Roberto struggles first with simmering rage, then with immobilising depression. Without intention, father and daughter conspire by internalising their grief and, in so doing, grow rapidly apart from each other. When Alejandra becomes the victim of vicious and escalating teenage bullying, she suppresses it, partly as a form of self-punishment for the guilt she feels at her mother’s death and partly in fear that it will further contribute to Roberto’s dysfunctional anguish. When Alejandra disappears, Roberto is finally shocked into action. Franco’s taut direction creates an unbearable tension, pitting these inert characters against the complex, imploding narrative momentum. Harrowing, and all too believable, the film’s power is derived in no small part from the stripped-back, unassuming performances by Tessa Ia (The Burning Plain) and Hernán Mendoza and the thoroughly convincing scenes between the teenagers, many of which were developed through improvisation.

Clare Stewart