Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

2022 Mexican film by Alejandro G. IñárrituTemplate:SHORTDESC:2022 Mexican film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

### **Written by**

* Alejandro G. Iñárritu
* Nicolás Giacobone

### **Produced by**

* Alejandro G. Iñárritu
* Stacy Perskie Kaniss

### **Starring**

* Daniel Giménez Cacho
* Griselda Siciliani

### **Music by**

* Bryce Dessner
* Alejandro G. Iñárritu

### **Production company**

* M Productions
* Redrum

### **Release date**

* September 1, 2022 (2022-09-01) (Venice)
* October 27, 2022 (2022-10-27) (Mexico)

### **Language**

* Spanish
* English

### **Country**

Mexico

***Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths*** (Template:Lang-es) is a 2022 Mexican epic black comedy-drama film co-written, co-composed, edited, produced, and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The film stars Daniel Giménez Cacho alongside Griselda Siciliani, and follows a journalist/documentarian who returns to his native country of Mexico and begins having an existential crisis in the form of dreamlike visions. It is Iñárritu's first film to be fully filmed in Mexico since *Amores perros*  in 2000.

*Bardo* premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion on September 1, 2022, and was released in theaters on November 18, 2022, then streamed on Netflix on December 16, 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Cacho and Siciliani, as well as Khondji's cinematography and Iñarritu's direction, but criticized the writing and runtime.

## Plot

Silverio Gama is a Mexican journalist turned documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles with his wife Lucía and teenage son Lorenzo. His work has become increasingly personal and subjective as he has grown older; his latest film, *False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,* is a work of docufiction with autobiographical elements. Silverio and Lucía are happy together, but they are haunted by the death of their first son Mateo a day after his birth. The two keep Mateo's ashes and feel unable to move on from his loss. Silverio experiences much of his day-to-day life in surreal fashion, with dreams, memories, and fantasies playing out alongside his activities. When he meets America's ambassador to Mexico at Chapultepec Castle, for instance, he envisions the events of the 1847 Battle of Chapultepec and the suicides of the Niños Héroes around him.

Silverio learns that he will be the first Latin American to receive a prestigious American award for journalism. He speculates that he is only receiving the award to ease tensions between the United States and Mexico (inflamed by negative perceptions of U.S-Mexico migration as well as Amazon's attempts to purchase the Mexican state of Baja California) but nevertheless tries to deal with a wave of media scrutiny in his home country. He cancels an interview on a popular talk show at the last minute, reminisces about his time as a husband and father, and tries to strike a balance between attacking the problems he sees with the Mexican state and defending its people from stereotypes. Secretly, he feels guilty over emigrating to the U.S. when so many other Mexicans cannot leave.

Silverio and his family attend a party held in his honor. He reunites with his siblings and extended family, to whom he is indifferent, and his adult daughter Camila, who he lavishes with attention. When the talk show host scathingly criticizes Silverio's work, the filmmaker responds by insulting the host personally. Silverio eventually flees into the restroom, where he imagines reconciliations with his deceased father and mother. When he leaves his mother's apartment, he sees symbolic representations of historic atrocities in Mexico: hundreds of people signifying those kidnapped or killed by organized crime collapse in a commercial district, and Hernán Cortés sits atop a pile of corpses in the Zócalo, lecturing Silverio about the indigenous genocide.

Before travelling back to Los Angeles, Silverio and his family vacation in Baja California just as Amazon buys the state. Camila tells Silverio that she will quit her job in America to move back to Mexico, which Silverio tentatively welcomes. The family decide to scatter Mateo's ashes in the ocean before leaving for the U.S., where they are treated with contempt by a Hispanic-American customs official.

After Lorenzo reminds him of a time when his pet axolotls died, Silverio buys some as a surprise gift. On the L.A. Metro ride from the pet store (in a repeat of an earlier scene), Silverio has a violent stroke and is left unattended on the train for several hours. He languishes in a coma, and it is revealed that the events of the film so far have been his comatose brain's attempts to process his life experience. Camila accepts the award in Silverio's absence, and she and his other family members and friends sit by his bedside, holding conversations and playing songs or television broadcasts that have inadvertently affected his dreams.

In a near-featureless desert within his mind, Silverio reunites with his dead family members and ignores projections of his living family. He sees a copy of himself, which mirrors his movements for a short time before walking away. The film ends as it began, with Silverio imagining himself flying through the desert. It is unclear if he has died, reawakened, or learned to live with his baggage.

## Cast

* Daniel Giménez Cacho as Silverio Gama
	+ Diego Tello de Meneses as 11 year old Silverio
* Griselda Siciliani as Lucía Gama
* Ximena Lamadrid as Camila Gama
* Iker Sanchez Solano as Lorenzo Gama
* Jay O. Sanders as Ambassador Jones
* Andrés Almeida as Martín
* Francisco Rubio as Luis
* Rubén Zamora as Silverio's brother
* Mar Carrera as Lucero
* Fabiola Guajardo as Tania
* Daniel Damuzi as Antonio
* José Antonio Toledano as Juan Escutia
* María Cobar as Niece
* Fernanda Borches as Presenter

## Production

### Development

On March 22, 2020, it was reported that Alejandro G. Iñárritu would write, direct and produce a new film, to be shot in Mexico, Bradford Young as cinematographer, and Patrice Vermette as production designer. On March 9, 2021, Griselda Siciliani joined the cast, with Grantham Coleman that July.

### Filming

Principal photography began on March 3, 2021 in Mexico City, with Darius Khondji as cinematographer and Eugenio Caballero as production designer. Five months of filming were planned in other locations in the Capital and the Estudios Churubusco.

On March 4, 2021, during filming in the historic center of Mexico City, a passerby was arrested for striking a production security member. In September 2021, it was reported that the film had completed production.

### Post-production

Iñárritu continued editing the film after its premiere. The version screened at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival in late September 2022 runs 152 minutes without credits, 22 minutes shorter than the one screened at Venice and Telluride. The final runtime was set at 160 minutes (including credits).

## Release

*Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths* had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2022. It had its United States premiere at the 2022 AFI Fest on November 3, 2022. It was released in theaters in Mexico on October 27, 2022, then a limited release in United States theatres on November 4 and on Netflix on December 16.

## Reception

### Critical reception

The film has received mixed reviews from critics, with many criticizing it as self-indulgent and pretentious. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 121 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "As deeply personal as it is demanding, *Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths* unsteadily walks the line between brilliance and sheer self-indulgence." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

## See also

* List of submissions to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
* List of Mexican submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

## References

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Grobar, Matt (2021-09-23). Alejandro G. Iñárritu's New Comedy Gets Title; Oscar Winner's First Project In His Native Mexico Since 'Amores Perros' (en-US).
2. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Fisher, Jacob (March 22, 2020). "Alejandro G. Iñárritu Set To Write & Direct New Film With Bradford Young & Patrice Vermette". *Discussing Film*. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
3. ↑ Huerta, Cesar (March 9, 2021). Iñárritu trae "Cortitos" a Griselda Siciliani y a Giménez Cacho (es-MX).
4. ↑ Kroll, Justin (July 29, 2021). Grantham Coleman Joins Cast Of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's Next Movie.
5. ↑ Film and TV Projects Going Into Production - Limbo.
6. ↑ Agencia Reforma (March 3, 2021). Iñárritu inicia rodaje de su nueva cinta en la capital mexicana (es).
7. ↑ Alejandro González Iñárritu comienza rodaje de su nueva película en CDMX (es) (March 5, 2021).
8. ↑ Grater, Tom (March 5, 2021). Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu Rolls Cameras On First Movie Since 'The Revenant'.
9. ↑ El Universal (March 4, 2021). Detienen a hombre que enfurece por rodaje de Iñárritu en la CDMX (es).
10. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kohn, Eric (September 22, 2022). "Alejandro G. Iñarritu on His Stunning 'Bardo' Trailer and Why the Movie Is Shorter Now — Exclusive". *IndieWire*. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
11. ↑ Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths. British Board of Film Classification.
12. ↑ Biennale Cinema 2022 | Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades.
13. ↑ AFI Fest Adds 'Bardo', 'The Son', 'She Said', 'Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio', More to Red Carpet Lineup (September 20, 2022).
14. ↑ Bergeson, Samantha (April 27, 2022). Netflix Buys Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Bardo' and Sets Global Awards Season 2022 Release.
15. ↑ Darren Aronofsky, Laura Poitras, Olivia Wilde, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Florian Zeller Take New Movies to Venice – Full Lineup (en-US) (2022-07-26).
16. ↑ Rubin, Rebecca (August 30, 2022). Netflix Unveils Fall Movie Slate With Release Dates for 'Bardo,' 'White Noise' and Lindsay Lohan's 'Falling for Christmas' (en-US).
17. ↑ Venice Film Festival Winners: Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell Take Top Acting Prizes – Updating Live. *Deadline Hollywood* (September 10, 2022).
18. ↑ COLLATERAL AWARDS OF THE 79TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL. *labiennale.org* (10 September 2022).
19. ↑ Verhoeven, Beatrice (December 14, 2022). *Everything Everywhere All At Once* Leads 2023 Critics Choice Awards Film Nominations.
20. ↑ Anderson, Erik (December 8, 2022). 'Top Gun: Maverick' leads International Press Academy's 27th Satellite Awards nominations. Retrieved on December 8, 2022.
21. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (December 12, 2022). Everything Everywhere All at Once Leads Chicago Film Critics Nominations. Retrieved on December 12, 2022.
22. ↑ 2022 EDA AWARDS NOMINEES. Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

## External links

* *Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths* on Netflix**Lua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 36: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).****Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**
* *Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths* at IMDb**Lua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 36: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**

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