Identifying Features [Sin señas particulares]

This compelling first feature finds a mother embarking on an Odyssey-like search for her missing son across a border terrain where law and order has effectively broken down.

Magdalena (an impressive Mercedes Hernández) bids goodbye to her son Jesús, who leaves Mexico’s central province of Guanajuato with his best friend Rigo in search of a better life in Arizona. But he never reaches his destination. When Rigo’s body is found, Magdalena decides to travel to the border in search of her missing son. There is a remarkable assuredness to director Fernanda Valadez’s cinematic language, evocatively embodying — with the aid of a sinister rasping score — the void that Jesús’ disappearance leaves in Magdalena’s world. The result is a deeply moving film about the importance of testimony – the need to search and to listen, and the importance of marking the passing of those we have known and loved.