I Dream in Another Language (2017) on Netflix
Zikril, an Indigenous language of the Veracruz rainforest, has two speakers left, and they are not on speaking terms. Martín, a linguist, comes to record it and reconcile Evaristo and Isauro.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.4/104,698 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
Martín is a linguist who arrives in a village in the Veracruz rainforest to study Zikril, the Indigenous language spoken there. He means to stay for months and make recordings, but he finds that only two people still speak it, Evaristo and Isauro, and that neither has addressed the other in fifty years. A grudge from long ago keeps them apart, and the villagers trace it to a rivalry over Evaristo's late wife. Isauro's health is failing, which makes the work urgent, so Martín sets out to mend the quarrel between the two old friends. He asks Evaristo's granddaughter to help him, and the pair grow close.
Cast
- Mardonio Carballoas Silverio
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about I Dream in Another Language (2017)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Zikril, the language the cast of I Dream in Another Language appear to speak fluently, does not exist: director Ernesto Contreras hired a linguist to invent an entire alphabet and vocabulary, then taught it to the actors so they could pass as native speakers.
- The film's storyline closely mirrors a 2011 Guardian headline about Ayapa Zoque, a dying Mexican language whose last two speakers had a grudge and would not speak to each other. The story was untrue but was reprinted around the world, including by the Sydney Morning Herald and Time magazine.
- At the 60th Premios Ariel, Mexico's most prestigious film ceremony, I Dream in Another Language won six awards, among them Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, making it the most nominated and most awarded film of that year.
- The idea for the story came from director Ernesto Contreras' own grandmother, who spoke Zapoteco, an Indigenous language of Mexico.
- Ernesto Contreras worked with the film's composer to write a lullaby in the invented language the characters speak.
SPOILER
The film leaves conversations in Zikril uncaptioned except at a few moments, such as the very end, which turns the audience into outsiders watching the characters and keeps the focus on human connection rather than language.
