CABALLERANGO

In a small Mexican village in the state of Jalisco, deteriorating economic and social conditions have led to a wave of suicides among its young people. In Caballerango, the incredible new documentary from filmmaker Juan Pablo González, conversations around town return to one subject in particular: the recent suicide of a young horse wrangler named Nando.

The story is told in a patient, observational style with methodical shots of the landscape, ranches, and of two white horses, whom Nando and his father tended to. Those horses, the last to see Nando alive, connect us to an ethereal sensation of almost otherworldly mystical beings. The quiet presentation of daily life in the village, from slaughtering cows to harvesting corn, forms the backdrop for the towns pain. Conversations with family members and townspeople reveal different aspects of Milpillas, which has been deeply affected by modernization, gaining insight into the identity issues caused by rifts between the centuries-old ways of life and the modern-day world.

A quietly devasting documentary, Caballerango is a portrait of how a rural Mexican town continues life as traditions vanish and new realities are born out of tragedy.

“Caballerango achieves humane portraiture on a vast scale.” – DigBoston