Gael García Bernal calls for a union of Latin American and European cinema

Mexican actor and filmmaker Gael García Bernal believes that Latin American cinema and European cinema share critical thinking “more necessary than ever” in the face of social polarization and “hegemony” of American cinema. Facing “a hegemony of cinema in English, of cinema in the United States”productions from Latin America and Europe must unite in a “dialogue between these two continents”because they share “certain fundamental ethical principles” such as defense “of the migrant, of the foreigner”he said in an interview with AFP, on the sidelines of an act of recognition for his career celebrated in Mexico last week.

The 47-year-old filmmaker received the Arts and Letters medal on Tuesday, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. Since the international revelation of the film’s premiere Love female dogs (2000), by his compatriot Alejandro González Iñárritu at the Cannes Film Festival, to films like The Science of Dreams (2006) by Frenchman Michel Gondry, France played an essential role in the career of García Bernal.

Trailer for Magellan (2025)

The decoration also reminded him of his distant French roots, brought to Mexico in the 19th century.^e century by his great-great-grandfather José Lamarque, of whom he had never spoken, not even to his children Lázaro and Libertad who, present at the ceremony, discovered for the first time this family link with France.

“Today we need a critical society”

But for Gael García Bernal, this medal “is also a recognition of the feeling of not being alone in the fight”car “more than ever, today we need a critical society”to which cinema on both sides of the Atlantic can contribute, he underlined. After “spectacular moments with European films that worked well here, or with Mexican and Latin American films that worked in Europe, new parameters emerging, a huge world opening up”he insisted.

Gael García Bernal currently plays Portuguese explorer Fernand Magellan in the film Magellan by Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, presented at the last Cannes Film Festival. At the same time, he has not stopped working with Canada Films and Ambulante, projects he launched two decades ago with his friend and compatriot Diego Luna to promote the production and distribution of documentaries as an instrument of social transformation. “The documentary eliminates the single discourse”he stressed.