Fraude: México 2006

The documentary covers the Mexican presidential election of 2006 and the crisis that followed. The result was declared on a margin under one per cent; Felipe Calderón won, Andrés Manuel López Obrador challenged it as fraud, and the country was shaken by weeks of street protest. The film lays out tally sheets, inconsistent polling-station results and television broadcasts. The film is not interested in balance but in an explicit thesis: the director argues the election was stolen and builds the film as the evidence file for it. There is effectively no room for the opposing view, and that choice is both its force and its limit. The form is investigative documentary: news archive, polling footage, scans of tally sheets and numerical comparisons presented as graphics. Luis Mandoki directed. He had previously made Hollywood films like Gaby and Message in a Bottle; this is the work in which he moved entirely into political ground. It caused wide argument in Mexico and spread at the time through independent screenings and hand-to-hand copies. Who it is for: viewers interested in Latin American politics and disputed elections. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an impartial examination. The film has reached its conclusion from the start and aims to convince.