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In Theaters Now
- 2024
- Janus Films
- 1 h 35 m
- 2024
- Janus Films
- 1 h 35 m
Summary In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for her father, Tona, led by her mother, aunts and other relatives. As the day goes on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol begins to understand the gravity of the celebration this year and watches as h...
Directed By: Lila Avilés
Written By: Lila Avilés
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- Janus Films
- 1 h 35 m
- 2024
- Janus Films
- 1 h 35 m
Tótem
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for her father, Tona, led by her mother, aunts and other relatives. As the day goes on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol begins to understand the gravity of the celebration this year and watches as h...
Directed By: Lila Avilés
Written By: Lila Avilés
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
91
95% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
91
95% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Grievous, loving, organic and mysterious. What a celebration.
Tótem is one of those films about death that overflows with life, and it’s a testament to filmmaker Lila Avilés that this gentle drama never collapses under its own weight or lets sorrow fully take the wheel.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
7.6
84% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
4% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
7.6
84% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
4% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Drama familiar que despierta la simpatía del espectador por su cercanía con un escenario real, evitando clichés sentimentales y con un final misterioso que no se molesta en dar respuestas. Eso debería ser defecto? No. Una de las mejores propuestas recientes del cine mexicano.
Report
'Totem' is like a warm hug that takes you back to that time when you got up to all kinds of mischief at your grandparents' house. Thinking about the meaning of the title, the images reminded me of the small gifts that family members give each other: the bonsai, the fish, the painting, the jar with tamarind seeds... Each one of them is a symbol to which, although they do not know it or do not let it be known at that moment, they give incalculable sentimental value. A totem. Lila Avilés gives us a work of immeasurable tenderness and desolation in equal measure. Just like 'Aftersun,' it feels like an alien memory that you make your own. How many of us did not make disfigurements in our grandparents' house? How many families didn't end up fighting after a party? How many times do we not think about the end of the world? 'Tótem' is the most important Mexican film of the year.
Report
Tōtem is an all-encompassing tale of anticipatory grief. It’s a gentle caress of a film, the type that touches you with pitiful care, leaving you with a consequence of comfort and sadness, but also the knowledge of being seen.
Rich with detail while also being intensely specific to the large middle-class family it observes, Avilés’ lifelike and lived-in second feature alternates among roughly half a dozen characters, inviting audiences to pick their own points of identification in the ensemble.
Tótem is a film of unexpected beauty, using its main character as a conduit for exploring the quandaries of a family navigating matters of love, heartbreak, class, innocence, and, perhaps most prominently, mortality.
Expectations were rewarded with an intimate film and impeccable direction.
This is clearly a very personal project for Avilés, and the heartbreak feels very real.
Through the gaze of the little protagonist, the film immerses us in a special day, framing it like a photo in the 4:3 shooting format (both oppressive and not), and makes us feel empathy for her extended family. Second work by the Mexican Lila Avilés, it is an interesting choral fresco, bittersweet, poetic, touching that celebrates life and death, love and art in all their forms and connections. An intimate, personal film that feeds on the bonds between the different individuals of the group; which rests on the variable and indefinite characteristics of human relationships when faced with harsh and irreversible changes; and which here are filtered through the expressive eyes of the little protagonist Naíma Sentíes, the true soul and driving force of the story (despite her very young age, she seems very mature and more sensitive than some adults), catalyst and spur of noble intentions and acts of generous love . The director identifies with her, suspends judgments on facts and people, and invites the viewer to participate emotionally in the events - sad and joyful at the same time. In short, a delicate and sensitive film that surprises and involves. A portrait full of nuances in which every viewer can recognize insights into their own life and human and family experience.
Report
O clássico sociólogo frnacês Émile Durkheim introduziu o termo "Tótem" em sua obra "As Formas Elementares da Vida Religiosa" (1912), onde ele analisa as estruturas sociais e religiosas das sociedades tribais australianas. Na antropologia, um totem é um objeto natural ou animal, frequentemente venerado como símbolo sagrado ou espiritualmente significativo por uma determinada comunidade, clã ou tribo. O totem pode representar a ancestralidade, a conexão com a natureza, a identidade coletiva ou outras crenças fundamentais do grupo.
Neste delicado trabalho da diretora mexicana Lila Avilés, a câmeravai acompanhar uma família organizando o aniversário de um homem doente, mas muito querido pelo "clã", em especial acompanhar a filha e a mulher. Sem explicar direito do que padece o aniversariante, mas sabemos em poucas cenas que é algo seríssimo, o filme ganha contornos mórbidos, numa espécie de pré-velório.
No entanto, algo digno de nota é o trabalho com o elenco, tudo tão natural, tão singelo, lembra um pouco a atmosfera do banal de "Aftersun", pela delicadeza e sensibilidade em filmas a rotina, mas há aqui toda uma encenação do grupo, das frases contidas ao choro tímido, parentes que preferem ser mais reservados, outros mais efusivos, mas todos ali preparando-se para uma celebração que mistura o aniversário e o sentimento de quase luto.
Gosto também de como tudo é muito curto, episódico, e do olhar atento que a câmera tem com a filha, de fato bem tocantes as cenas da garota, mas toda a família tem algo a representar, mesmo que uns estejam mais distantes. Um belo exemplar de cinema latino, mergulhando em nossas "raízes tribais" (repare os rituais religiosos no início do filme), mostrando que, sim, somos uma sociedade muito religiosa, no sentido mais antropológico do termo. Filme extremamente rico para revelar nossas inclinações de ligação com o outro.
Report
The everyday lives of average individuals ordinarily might not make for especially engaging storytelling. However, when they’re framed within the context of extraordinary circumstances, they take on an added new dimension, as witnessed in the second offering from Mexican writer-director Lila Avilés. This warm, heartfelt, bittersweet comedy-drama tells the endearing story of a family hosting a birthday party for Tona, a young, beloved painter battling advanced cancer (Mateo Garcia Elizondo), told largely through the perspective of his seven-year-old daughter, Sol (Naíma Sentíes), who hopes against hope for her father’s recovery. As events play out, viewers watch as Tona’s family makes preparations for the celebration – often involving simple tasks told with delightfully funny twists that provide much-needed comic relief – as well as the various means with which his relatives are dealing (or not dealing) with an apparently impending inevitability that no one really wants to address or discuss. Yet what might seem destined to be an exercise in forced festivities with an underlying sense of morbidity turns out to be a loving, earnest celebration of life, despite the undeniable presence of an unwanted, intangible “guest” lingering in the background. While the film incorporates a few sequences that are inherently a little too incidental in nature compared to the larger overall narrative, “Tótem” nevertheless serves up a charming, touching, authentically presented tale that reaches out to audiences and surrounds them with sincere, loving feelings and a big, well-earned hug. This National Board of Review winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee is a fine, little-known indie gem that will surely move you, even if it leaves you with uncomfortably mixed feelings as its story unfolds. It effectively illustrates that there indeed can be times of boundless, overwhelming joy even in the face of overwhelming lament but that what ultimately matters most is what we make of these circumstances when they play out, especially when it comes to expressing how we feel for those whom we truly care about most.
Report
Production Company
Limerencia Films,
Laterna,
Paloma Productions,
Alpha Violet Production
Release Date Jan 26, 2024
Duration 1 h 35 m
Genres
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 6 Nominations
Morelia International Film Festival
• 4 Wins & 4 Nominations
Beijing International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
