Un banquete en Tetlapayac

Un banquete en Tetlapayac is a contemporary reconstruction of events surrounding Que viva México! by Sergei Eisenstein, the legendary episode film, shooting of which came to a halt when Eisenstein in 1932 was forced to leave Mexico by lack of money and other problems. During the filming of the second episode ‘Maguey’ (maguey is an alcoholic drink made from agaves), Eisenstein and his crew stayed at the Tetlapayac hacienda. Filming was halted for a few weeks when the leading actor ended up in jail because he had accidentally shot dead his sister. In the meantime the crew members killed time watching film fragments, having discussions, music, dance, food and drink. In Un banquete en Tetlapayac Debroise brings together a group of contemporary film-makers, artists and intellectuals 67 years later on the Tetlapayac estate to relive the mood of the past from their contemporary perspective. They discuss thousands of pages of correspondence, essays and newspapers cuttings, in other words, what must have concerned Eisenstein at the time: the bloody history of Mexico, Stalin, the rise of Hollywood. The film is also partly a reconstruction of events that led to the enforced break for Maguey. Un banquete en Tetlapayac is a homage to Eisenstein and also a story about boredom, imagination, creativity, love and sex.