El águila y el gusano

In Guita Schyfter’s El águila y el gusano, an intricate plot serves to intersect the destinies of several characters: the owner of a beauty salon in love with “all things Chinese”, a politician with a taste for oration who couldn’t care less about the problems of his country, a political adviser whose counsel is never considered and a shady investigator with a name that nobody seems to recall. The script by Schyfter and Hugo Hiriart, her longtime collaborator and author of the 2013 novel on which the film is based, bristles with finely-crafted, hilarious dialogue.
 
Several intrigues converge in El águila y el gusano: the whereabouts of a corpse, a secret hidden in the salon’s walls, the characters’ dubious pasts, art historical research and the purpose of modern art, several murders and disappearances… This eccentric satire – whose incidents are constantly refracted by radio and TV news – is never short on twists and grotesque revelations. With great performances and vigorous direction, El águila y el gusano turns the tragedy of our times into a source of diabolic entertainment and dark humour – offering us a surreal fresco of the miseries and ills of Mexican society. 

– Cristina Álvarez López