“How can you be sure that everybody who had a K-15 in their hands was someone truly evil?”: Gian Cassini on his TIFF-Premiering Doc Comala

A son’s search for a father he never knew is an emotional and complicated journey in even the best of circumstances. When that dad is a smalltime hitman murdered in Tijuana who left behind another family, including a son who likewise embraced criminality and his own father who supposedly fought for Castro (and also worked for the CIA), that investigation can become something infinitely more complex. And if that child is a brave and thoughtful filmmaker like Monterrey-based Gian Cassini it transforms into a journey much greater than the sum of its tabloid-sensational parts: a study of intergenerational violence, machismo culture, and the collective collateral damage experienced by an entire traumatized society. Filmmaker was fortunate enough to catch up with the Mexican director (and writer/editor/producer) just prior to the September 13th TIFF world premiere of his debut feature Comala, its title a reference to the ghost town in Juan Rulfo’s “Pedro Páramo,” naturally a novel about one man’s quest to connect with a long lost dad.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.