“A Time-Traveling Conquistador Confronting Modern Mexicans”: Rodrigo Reyes on His Tribeca and Hot Docs Selected 499

499, the fourth feature film from “25 New Face” alum Rodrigo Reyes, is an epic, enchanting road movie that travels seamlessly through time (a 500-year-old journey reenacted in the present day) and space (across Mexico, from coastal Veracruz to the nation’s capital — or what used to be called Tenochtitlán back when the Aztecs claimed it as their own). Cemented by Eduardo San Juan Breña’s gripping performance as a Spanish conquistador who finds himself washed up into the future and onto modern day Mexico’s shores, the film recreates the path taken by Hernán Cortez in his 1621 quest to conquer the new land — but with a twist. In lieu of Aztec warriors, the ghostly conquistador encounters the victims and perpetrators held hostage by the country’s ceaseless drug wars — both sides bound by a legacy of Spanish colonialism that reverberates to this very day.

Filmmaker took the opportunity to catch up with the Mexico-born American director as 499 was making its (digital) debuts in the Official Documentary Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival, and in the International Spectrum Competition at Hot Docs.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.