Maria Candelaria

Emilio Fernández's 1944 Mexican film takes place among the canals of Xochimilco. María Candelaria is an Indigenous flower seller shunned by the villagers because her mother was a prostitute, and nobody will buy from her. She and Lorenzo hope to live together and marry, but debt, illness and the moral policing of the village close their paths. A painter's wish to paint her carries the story into disaster. It is counted among the works that first placed Indigenous people at the centre of Mexican cinema on this scale, while that representation is also criticised as idealised and observed from outside. Gabriel Figueroa's photography, with its clouds, water and compositions of faces, gives the film its identity. It shared the grand prize at Cannes, the first film from Latin America to win it. Who it's for: viewers who like classic Mexican cinema and visually strong melodrama. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a measured ending; the film goes to tragedy.