In 2016, Alejandro G. Iñárritu found himself walking up to the Oscars stage to pick up the best director award for the second time in two years. “I can’t believe this is happening,” he said.
With his consecutive wins for “Birdman” and “The Revenant” he had become one of only three directors, the others are John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, to do so and the first since 1950. If there is a peak in the movie making business, that might be it. But then, Iñárritu disappeared — at least from Hollywood features. He had some things to wrestle with, about himself, his art, his family, his country. That six years of introspection would bring him back to Mexico to make his first feature set there since his debut, “Amores Perros,” from 2000.
