# I Promise You Anarchy

I Promise You Anarchy (Spanish: Te Prometo Anarquía) is a 2015 Mexican drama film, directed and written by Julio Hernández Cordón. The film stars Diego Calva Hernández and Eduardo Eliseo Martinez as two long-time friends and lovers, who after a failed business are separated by the mother of one of them.
The film premiered at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival, being the only Latin film competing for the Golden Leopard Award, and was screened at the Contemporary World Cinema Section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. After its exhibition at the 13th Morelia International Film Festival, the film earned the Guerrero Award for Best Mexican Feature and a Special Mention by the Jury. The film also received two nominations at the 2016 Ariel Awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography.
The film begins with a love story between two people and ends by addressing the issue of illegal blood trafficking in Mexico, it is a story of crime and strong social criticism.

## Plot

Miguel, a middle-class young man living in Mexico City, is in love with Johnny, a glue sniffing skater whose mother is Miguel’s family house maid. Miguel and Johnny work together getting people to give blood for it to be sold in illegal blood trafficking deals ordered by their associate Gabriel.
The film opens with Miguel and Johnny arguing outside of the latter’s tank truck he lives out of, Johnny accuses Miguel of telling people they are sleeping together. They later have sex in the truck while Johnny’s girlfriend Adri is asleep near them, when Miguel leaves at night, he steals her clothes and drops them in a pedestrian bridge.
In the morning, Gabriel calls Miguel to gather people for a quick job, he then calls Johnny to ask for his help and tells him he loves him. Miguel later meets him at a jai alai court Johnny works at and convinces his boss that Johnny's grandmother is sick and they need people to donate blood, him and some people at the court agree to go with them and are taken to a corrupt medical center Gabriel works with. Alone in an ambulance, Gabriel tells Miguel that a blood bag turned in by Johnny tested positive for hepatitis C and questions Miguel if he has it as well. Gabriel later asks Miguel if he could get him 50 people for a job that would get him paid well.
Miguel spends the following days skating and with friends, wandering around town scouting people for the upcoming job reaching out to much more people, including friends, their relatives, co-workers of his parents and even Adri, promising them of the good pay and suggests to them it could be good for them to be more involved in the business.
Becoming worried when he doesn’t hear from Johnny, he goes to the jai alai court at night and finds him and Adri lazing around and argue amongst each other. To much of his discontent, he drives both of them and gives Adri a ride back home, Miguel then brings up the hepatitis C result to Johnny, questioning who he’s slept with and his distrust of Adri, Johnny shuts him down annoyed. Miguel asks Johnny if he'd be okay dealing with narcos to which he says he doesn't mind and tells him of the upcoming job but also urges him to be more careful and responsible. Johnny says he could get a room at the jai alai court and suggests they could live together but Miguel rejects the idea, alluding to the stark class difference between them. When alone in the tank truck together, Johnny shows him different ways to inhale glue.
Miguel and Johnny have at this point introduced various of their friends to the deals including the upcoming one, but also worry about how their health's have deteriorated due to their reliance on the job, including a young skater boy who has anemia. Miguel and Johnny go out the next day trying to get the rest of the people needed for the upcoming deal and organize them all together in the empty lot where the tank truck is stationed at.
The guy on the other end of the deal, David, arrives and intimidates everyone including Miguel as he arrives with a large truck with armed men, David takes interest of Miguel's Jeep SUV which belongs to his dad and easily convinces him to sell it to him when he shows him his gun and suggests Miguel not to get him angry, handing him all the money for the job. The people voice their concerns with their safety and working with David to Miguel as they have to be transported in a large box truck instead of just having their blood drawn at the organized area as it usually happens, many attempt to back out but David warns them the deal will happen one way or the other, Miguel nervously tries to get them to comply which they end up doing terrified, Miguel asks David to wait while he and Johnny get water and snacks to calm the people down, however, they come back to an empty lot realizing all the people have just been kidnapped.
Miguel and Johnny skate around the main roads to see if they can hunt down the truck but become desperate, they try to reach Gabriel who at first ignores their calls as he is filming at a studio, Gabriel comes outside to talk to them and tells them they have to wait for the filming to wrap, however Miguel and Johnny sneak inside the studio and batter Gabriel to death. Lost and petrified, they keep skating around the city. In a subway train, they notice a shaky man with a bloodied nose near them.
Miguel and Johnny stay in a hotel room and question what to do with all the money. Johnny calls his mother, Brenda, telling her he has enough money for them to do anything and sneaks out of the hotel room when Miguel's asleep. Brenda meets him at a bus stop and painfully attempts to question what lead him to acquire so much money. They go stay at one of Brenda’s friends at a restaurant off-road the highway, Johnny voices his discontent with the area as there is not space for him to skate and asks if he can call Miguel to come pick him up, Brenda slaps him which makes him run away with Brenda attempting to catch him but is unable to do so, Johnny leaves a few bills for her before running off and skates away. Miguel wakes up in a frenzy, calling his mother who tells him Brenda is gone, she picks him up at the hotel, angry, she questions if it all happened due to Johnny’s influence and drives him to the airport arranging him to fly off to Texas and work with one of his dad's friends, he asks what would happen to Johnny amidst all this, to which she just responds with “I don’t know.”
Miguel feels depressed and alone, trying to find solace skating and sneaking off to sniff glue imitating the “poses” Johnny taught him before. He is assigned to a gardening job and goes for a walk in which he fantasizes Johnny being with him and the movie ends with an imagined scene of the two of them skating together in Texas.

## Cast

* Diego Calva Hernández as Miguel
* Eduardo Eliseo Martinez as Johnny
* Shvasti Calderón as Adri
* Oscar Mario Botello as David
* Gabriel Casanova as Gabriel
* Sarah Minter as Miguel's Mother
* Martha Claudia Moreno as Johnny's Mother
* Diego Escamilla Corona as Techno
* Milkman as David
* Erwin Jonathan Mora Alvarado as Príncipe Azteca
* Juan Pablo Escalante as Nito
* Daniel Adrián Mejía Aguirre as Hamster
* Mario Alberto Sánchez as Major Tom
* Yair Domínguez Monroy as Pedo Bomba
* Francisco Kjeldson as Safari

## Production

Diana Sánchez, artistic director of the Panama International Film Festival, stated that the film is "a lovely and heartfelt exploration of love and friendship. Beautifully shot, the film demonstrates Hernández’s versatility and progression as a filmmaker. The scenes of the skateboarders in Mexico City, for instance, are kinetic and feel very realistic”. According to the director, he tried to mix documentary, fiction and film noir, with the film showing "the innocence of youth and the moments you try to play the bad guy, the criminal, but you are not really that kind of character". Te Prometo Anarquía won one part of a split prize at the 2015 Panamá International Film Festival, where it received US$20,000 to pay post production fees; the rest of the prize (US$5,000) was awarded to Costa Rica's El Sonido de las Cosas ("The Sound of Things"), directed by Ariel Escalante.

## Reception

The film was named "The Best Mexican Film of 2015" by Fernanda Solórzano of Letras Libres.

## Awards and nominations

| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
| 2015 Panamá International Film Festival | Primera Mirada | Te Prometo Anarquía | Won |
| 2015 Locarno International Film Festival | Golden Leopard | Te Prometo Anarquía | Nominated |
| 2015 San Sebastián International Film Festival | Horizons Awards | Te Prometo Anarquía | Nominated |
| 2015 Morelia International Film Festival | Guerrero Award for Best Mexican Feature | Te Prometo Anarquía | Won |
| 2015 Morelia International Film Festival | Special Mention by the Jury | Te Prometo Anarquía | Won |
| 2015 Festival do Rio | FIPRESCI Prize | Te Prometo Anarquía | Won |
| 2015 Havana Film Festival | Coral Award for Best Lead Actor | Diego Calva Hernández | Won |
| 2015 Havana Film Festival | Coral Award for Best Lead Actor | Eduardo Eliseo Martínez | Won |
| 2015 Havana Film Festival | Coral Award for Best Screenplay | Julio Hernández Cordón | Won |
| 58th Ariel Awards | Best Director | Julio Hernández Cordón | Nominated |
| 58th Ariel Awards | Best Cinematography | María José Secco | Nominated |