There is a beautiful, but for me also rather placid, sadness at the centre of this new movie from Mexican actor-turned-director Lila Avilés, whose 2018 debut The Chambermaid I very much admired, and which I think had more dramatic weight and bite than this followup, heartfelt as it is.
The question arises: what is the “totem” of the title? Is it one of the many objects to which people attach significance here, objects with significance in Mesoamerican history? Or more everyday objects, including a bonsai tree and an elaborately decorated cake? Or is the “totem” the lead character: Tona (Mateo Garcia), a talented young artist dying of cancer? His extended family and friends are throwing Tona a big party at his house, defiantly celebrating his life and the love that surrounds him, while maybe not acknowledging their obvious misery, and also the fact that making this last great effort to attend a party in his honour may simply finish Tona off.
