Emilio Fernández

Emilio ‘Indio" Fernandez, arguably Mexico’s greatest filmmaker and this cinephile’s favourite director.

Emilio Fernandez shared many things in common with John Ford. First, a long-lasting friendship; yearning for a utopic future for their respective countries, expressed mainly in their earlier films; and an obsession for what Ford had called “man’s unceasing search for something he can never find.” Most importantly though, they shared a concern for cinema’s power in mythmaking, and certainly the images that el Indio’s films created for Mexico, went far beyond the cinema and are...