Battle in Heaven

Carlos Reygadas Castillo is a Mexican filmmaker known for his three films Batalla en el Cielo, Japón and Stellet Licht (Luz Silenciosa). After Batalla en el Cielo he was known for his raw depiction of sex on his films and the use of old or ugly characters. With Stellet Licht Carlos competed once more for the Palm d’or at the 2007 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and has become one of the most prominent writer/directors of modern cinema.

In 1987 Carlos Reygadas discovered his filmic passion after watching the films Andrei Tarkovsky. He studied Law in Mexico, afterwards he specialized in Armed Conflicts in London and worked for the United Nations.

In 1997 Carlos participated in a film competition in Belgium with his first short film, Maxhumain. Shortly after that, in 1999 he began writing his first long film: Japón, which he didn’t began to shoot until 2001. The film was presented at the Rotterdam Film Festival and received a special metion on the Caméra d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Coral Award of the Havana Film Festival. Japón contains a number of scenes of real animal cruelty and the British Board of Film Classification demanded cuts for its UK release in accordance with the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937. The excised scenes are described as an unsuccessful attempt to strangle a bird which then stumbles around injured on the ground and a dog being forced to ‘sing along’ to a song through the application of a painful stimulus. The film also includes an unsimulated scene of a bird being shot down and then killed by having its head torn off, and the (off camera) slaughter of a pig.

In 2004 Carlos Reygadas produced the film Sangre, directed by the young filmmaker Amat Escalante. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and won at the Un Certain Regard section. It was also presented in other festivals, such as the Toulouse Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

In 2005 Reygadas filmed Batalla en el Cielo, (Battle in Heaven) assisted by Amat Escalante. It competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. —http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/carlos_reygadas/index.shtml

Interview with Carlos Reygadas