In Tótem, a young girl spends the day at her grandfather’s house, waiting for a surprise party for her dying father. Source: Australian Catholics.
This engaging film, full of humanity, won the Ecumenical Prize (from a combined Catholic and Protestant Churches’ Jury) at the Berlin film Festival 2023.
It is a Mexican film, written and directed by Lila Aviles with great sensitivity.
The main character is seven-year-old Sol (short for Solecito), played so well by Senties.
Viewers spend much of the film watching her and her expressions – so full of life, happiness and sadness. We are watching the adult world through her eyes.
Sol enjoys being with her mother, joking, making wishes – especially a wish that her father would not die. And this means that there is an air of melancholy underlying the good humour of the film.
Tona, her father, has terminal cancer, and is cared for at home by a maternal nurse, supported by his sisters and their children, and his elderly therapist father who needs an electro-larynx to speak.
The action of Tótem takes place over a couple of hours. The plan is to hold a birthday party for Tona. In this time, his sisters bake, care for their children, organise medical care for Tona and even invite in a woman who will go through rituals to cast out any evil powers.
We get to know the family members well – liking some, wary of others. But, all the time, we are with Sol, waiting to see her father, who is frail, struggling at times to walk and needing constant attention.
When the guests arrive, the Latin American party is full of verve.
While the film is something of a joyous hymn to life, it faces squarely the realities of illness and death. And we, the audience, respond to both but our awareness enhanced by our liking for and our sympathies with Sol and her childlike responses.
Review by Fr Peter Malone MSC, Jesuit Media.
Tótem: Starring Naima Senties, Montserrat Maranon, Marisol Gase. Directed by Lila Aviles. 95 minutes. Rated M (Coarse language).
FULL REVIEW
Tóttem (Australian Catholics)
