Mexico, 1938. The very last warriors fight a rearguard action in the latter days of the Cristiada, the bloody war that lasted years between Roman Catholic rebels and the Mexican government, which wanted to reduce the power of the church with strict anticlerical laws.
This small group of ‘cristeros’ are fighting for their religious freedom and holing up in the wild expanse of the Mexican landscape. Occasionally there is a shot; apart from that the war remains limited to just surviving with less and less under the merciless sun.
The father of director Matías Meyer is a historian who published several books about the Cristiada, still a sensitive subject in Mexico. While a Hollywood film was also being made about this civil war, with leading roles for Andy Garcia and Eva Longoria, Meyer made the opposite of a Hollywood spectacle: performed by nonprofessional actors, The Last Christeros is an intimate, minimalist Western with great attention to tranquil and comradely moments.
Film details
- Countries of production
- Mexico, Netherlands
- Year
- 2011
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 90'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
