“When will the world end?” There’s a great deal of uncertainty in the life of seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) right now, so she takes her mother’s phone to a quiet corner away from the bustle in her grandfather’s house and puts her big question to Siri. The little girl has picked up enough from the fragments of conversation of the adults thronging in the house to understand that, while the end is still a way off, her world, or at least part of it, is about to change for ever.
The second film from Mexican actor turned writer-director Lila Avilés, Tótem is exquisite – a vital ensemble drama that’s suffused with joy and love. Taking a child’s-eye view of the controlled chaos of preparations for a birthday party in honour of Sol’s terminally ill father, Tonatiuh (Mateo García Elizondo), it deftly balances grief against celebration; the shadow of death against a frame that is perpetually teeming with life (human, insect, animal and a goldfish named Nugget).
