Roma (2018)

This film by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who not only directed it but also wrote, co-produced and was an important part of the cinematography, received very good reviews and won three Oscars, including Best Foreign Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography, and also won the Golden Globe Award in the first two Oscar categories and four BAFTA awards, but its box office takings were a failure, barely 5.1 million dollars, as opposed to the 15 million dollars it cost to produce.

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The author was inspired by memories of his childhood in the neighborhood of the same name as the film, is set in the 1970s and shows the daily life of a middle-class family and their indigenous domestic worker named Cleo, played by the protagonist Yalitza Aparicio.

The family is composed of four young children, in addition to the married couple, Sofia's mother who is the wife and another domestic worker also of Oaxacan indigenous origin.

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The husband, Antonio, is a doctor and the marital relationship is tense.

The film shows a period of time of approximately one year and several events mark the times of the same, Cleo's pregnancy, the robbery by paramilitaries to a store where the maid and Sofia meet, this is personified by the actress Marina de Tavira, the violence in the streets and the birth of the baby of the maid.

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The novelty of this production is that it is in black and white and its strength lies in the meticulously carried out setting, which includes musical hits of the moment, impeccable scenery and photography.

There are no extreme actions in it, everything is everyday, and perhaps that was the reason for its failure at the box office, despite being the first Spanish-language and Mexican film to compete for Best Picture at the Oscars.

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Personally I did not find it extraordinary and I enjoyed learning a little more about Mexican culture and daily life, its great teaching is in showing a fragmented society that continues regardless of the damage it produces in its inhabitants.