I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first-ever feature-length stop-motion animated film, is now on Netflix. The movie is set in 19th-century Mexico and follows a gifted writer whose gift isn’t celebrated by the world she lives in, which expects her to conform to societal expectations. However, when she is thrust into her subconscious, her own spooky stories and monsters come to life, taking her on the adventure of a lifetime.
The Ambriz Brothers, Arturo and Roy, never thought they’d get to make history with a movie such as this one. But they aren’t ignorant of its importance. “When we were trying to do this film, a lot of people in Mexico told us that it was impossible. They told us that it was really complex and audiences in Mexico only want, like, really easy films in which they don’t have to think about stuff,” Arturo Ambriz shared.
But this film proves that wrong, and he believes that’s important for the next generation of Mexican filmmakers. For Roy Ambriz, the landscape of Mexican cinema is very diverse, and that’s great. “You can have a very serious and social piece, but at the same time, you can have something colorful and musical. That plurality, those different voices being heard all through Mexican cinema, is a beautiful phenomenon that demonstrates all the diversity of Mexico and its peoples and its colors and its flavors. So, we’re really glad to be a part of that.”
The brothers also spoke about Guillermo del Toro as an inspiration for them and for all Mexican filmmakers. “I think that the biggest source of inspiration definitely is Guillermo del Toro. I think that he showed us all the Mexicans that you can follow your dreams and that you can do the stuff that you want to do, not what the industry expects you to do,” Arturo Ambriz shared. “He opened a lot of doors. And the way he manages the relationship with monsters a lot. That’s really important.”
They also took inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki, of course. “We wanted to create with our studio, like the Mexican Ghibli version,” Arturo told us.
But the work of a filmmaker is to find their own voice outside of those inspirations. According to Roy Ambriz, “It’s like ‘ok, they exist. They give you… They are like a guiding light in the middle of the storm.’ But at the same time, you have to listen to your own tastes, to your sense of aesthetics, to your sense of pacing, to your sense of storytelling and experiences, and try to make something of your own.”
“We really wanted to create a space, a physical, geographical place where there could be a lot more stories and where the audience can imagine themselves in,” he also shared.
And this all ties together to what the Ambriz brothers want people to know about Mexican cinema. “I think that we as Mexicans can tell a lot of different stories. I think that Mexico is really different,” Arturo Ambriz said. “But different experiences help us to see life with a different perspective. And I think that specific style of watching Mexican life can also develop a lot of different narratives for filmmaking. And I think that everybody has to watch films from different countries.”
We’d recommend you start with I Am Frankelda, which is now available on Netflix.