There are but two people in the world who speak Zikril, and they live in a very remote Mexican village in the Vera Cruz province. Martin, a university researcher obsessed with recording the final conversations between two of Zikril’s practitioners, arrives to discover that the two men have a five-decade grudge that shows no sign of abating, meaning that the language remains trapped within their two stubborn brains.
Speaking to the men separately, Martin slowly learns the story, told to us in flashback, of Evaristo, a bitter and cantankerous man, and Isauro, who is sick and dying. Ostensibly, the two men fought over the love of a woman, but as the stories unfold, Martin begins to peel away more complex feelings that exist in the pair. From the Contreras brothers, Ernesto (director) and Carlos (screenwriter) comes this haunting and often amusing study of language, myth, love, and mortality.
Director’s Biography
Ernesto Contreras: Ernesto Contreras was born in 1969 in Veracruz, Veracruz, and graduated from the Center for Studies in Communication Sciences and the University Center for Cinematographic Studies (CUEC) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. With his brother, Carlos, a screenwriter, he has made the films Párpados azules (Blue Eyelids) and Las oscuras primaveras (The Obscure Spring).