Mexican director Gian Cassini’s COMALA is an intimate true-crime odyssey. It follows Cassini as he attempts to uncover the truths of his father’s violent past as a small-time hitman and drug trafficker in Tijuana. Through his queer lens, Cassini unpacks the deeply-rooted networks of machismo and toxic masculinity that informed his own life and perpetuated his family’s traumas, offering audiences an unprecedented look into the personal ramifications of Mexico’s failed War on Drugs.
Many of us will be familiar with the lives of Mexico’s drug lords and cartels as told through excellent programs such as Narcos Mexico. Premiering at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, Cassini’s powerful documentary shows another side to this story – the lives of the families left behind in the wake of the thousands of drug gang members killed in Mexico each year.
Cassini was raised in Monterrey by his single mother, with whom he has a very close relationship. He only saw his father, who had started another family, about once a year. In 2010, his father’s untimely death at age 44 – shot dead by the police after a tip-off from a disgruntled girlfriend – prompts him to find out more about his father’s and his other relatives’ lives. His investigative documentary takes him on an uncomfortable, emotional journey around Mexico and the US as he uncovers inter-generational crime, drug-use, misogyny, domestic violence, abandoned children, and murder within the male members of his family.
Cassini’s father was an intelligent, energetic, happy child, who gradually got led astray by other family members into a life of crime. Career opportunities are limited for poor people in Mexico and young men in search of an identity and money are easily lured into the world of drugs. Drug dealers often invest money into their local communities, improving infrastructure and educational facilities more effectively than the Mexican government, so a drugs career can be very socially acceptable at a local level. His father was never very financially successful though and started using drugs himself. He slowly became more and more desperate until he ended up working as a low-paid hitman, known as ‘El Jimmy’, murdering rival gang members in Tijuana.
Cassini’s cathartic documentary is an impressive debut. His film is raw and emotional, using fairly basic camera work, family interviews and old family home videos to tell his story. This is the right way to do it as we are dealing with human life at its most elemental. His family are an engaging cast of characters although some of their recollections – such as those involving domestic violence and murder – are tough to hear. It’s interesting to see how such behavior becomes normalized within a family and leads us to question whether we have normalized any toxic behavior in our own family lives. Ultimately though the film is a healing process for Cassini.
There is a trend at the moment for queer filmmakers to explore their families’ past to help understand their own presence. This is a natural human desire, to understand where we have come from – the quest for identity. Previously most queer film making has however focused more on the present – on new friends and lives rather than family history. This is a welcome evolution in the constant further integration of queers into mainstream society. We are all the products of our flesh and blood relatives.
Comala will have its U.S. premiere at the 12th edition of DOC NYC, taking place in-person and online
from November 11-18, 2021.
Review: Ris Fatah Queerguru Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
