Tigers Are Not Afraid

In a Mexican town, children whose mothers have disappeared in cartel violence live on the streets by themselves. Estrella has three wishes, from a piece of chalk her teacher gave her. The wishes come true, and none of them the way she wanted. What follows her is not only the cartel but a voice. The film is not interested in a ghost story. It is interested in the tale children tell themselves: rather than showing cartel violence directly it rebuilds it through their imagination, which makes it not more bearable but more frightening. Bloodstains on the walls turn into a snake. The form is low-budget but designed: abandoned houses, drawings, brief animated moments and passages between the real and the fabled. Issa López wrote and directed. After festival screenings the film reached a wide audience through open praise from Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King, both of whom named it among the best of its year; del Toro's support mattered for its international distribution. Paola Lara plays Estrella and Juan Ramón López the boy leading the gang. Who it is for: viewers who like the fusion of fable and horror and Latin American cinema. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take violence involving children. The film does not show it, but keeps it constantly present and offers no consolation.