GUIE’DANI’S NAVEL (El ombligo de Guie’Dani/Xquipi’ Guie’Dani)
September 16, 2021
Dir. Xavi Sala / Mexico / 2019 / 119 min
SYNOPSIS
Zapotec and Spanish with English subtitles
With Sótera Cruz, Érika Ló pez, Majo Alfaroh, Yuriria del Valle, Juan Ríos, Valentina Buzzurro, Jerónimo Kesselman, Mónica del Carmen.
In a star-making performance, Sótera Cruz brings razor-sharp intensity to her portrayal of Guie’dani, a Zapotec girl determined to fight for her dignity.
Guie’dani is dragged to Mexico City by her mother to help in her work as a housekeeper for an upper-middle-class family. There, the subtle psychological subjugation inflicted by the white family functions as a metaphor for the oppression of the old world by the new. Yet, Guie’dani rejects the life of servitude and seeks her own identity through a friendship with another rebellious teen.
A striking contrast to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Guie’dani’s Navel is a unique coming-of-age narrative exploring the racism inflicted on indigenous people in Mexico and the empowerment of a new generation that refuses to accept it silently.