Magdalena (Mercedes Hernández) last saw her son, Jesus (Juan Varela), leaving their small town of Guanajuato in Mexico. He and his friend, Rigo, wish to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to find work. As a mother, she isn’t exactly happy with his decision. But she lets him go anyway.
Two months had passed, and neither of the boys’ mothers received news of their whereabouts. Magdalena’s growing discomfort leads her and Chuya (Laura Elena Ibarra), Rigo’s mother, to consult the authority. There they discover that Rigo has tragically died and Jesus has gone missing.
Clinging onto the little hope that Jesus is alive, Magdalena decided to retrace his teenage son’s steps. In her journey, she meets Olivia (Ana Laura Rodriguez), a mother also searching for his son for four years, and Miguel (David Illescas), a man deported by the United States.
Her investigation eventually leads her to an abandoned landscape inhabited by the militia. Words said that an elder in the area knows what happened to her son.
But sometimes not knowing is better than finding out.
Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” centers around a mother searching for her son while exploring the different angles of desperation. Her story is slow and poetic yet universal. Everyone can relate to a mother’s persistence even without diving into the complex history of the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, its strength is also its weakness. The absence of context on the terror that “illegal” immigrants encounter while crossing the border compromises a chunk of the narrative and Valadez’s shocking reveal.
Nevertheless, “Identifying Features” remains a powerful feature. Unlike most films that focus on the violence toward immigrants, the film examines a mother’s thoughts and feelings as she slowly cracks the mystery behind her son’s sudden disappearance. It put issues like political strife, poverty, and brutality in the backseat, but it never discounts its importance. In some way or another, these issues show up to illustrate that dire situations lead to difficult choices and permanent change.
“Identifying Features” is the definition of contemporary Mexican cinema. It’s a soulful story about family but with a devastating reality buried within it.
3.5/5
