The Mexican summer holiday is long and boring for Fernando and Gabriel. While their mother wallows in her sorrow about the absence of their father, they have to look after themselves. So the teenager Fernando loses himself in parties and drink, while little Gabriel lolls endlessly in front of the TV. Nature ought to offer a way out for the brothers, but things turn out differently. Pablo Delgado Sánchez made The Tears as a graduation film from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC), a film school set up in 1975 in Mexico City that now has become one of the most important breeding grounds for young Mexican talent. Sánchez captures city life and the brother’s camping trip in dreamy images, shot in full-screen 16mm. The film, largely made using improvisation, was based on an outline only 20 pages long and won a Carte Blanche Prize for post-production at the Locarno Film Festival.