VLAFF is bringing Mexico to Vancouver

The Vancouver Latin American Film Festival has announced Güeros as its opening night film, which kicks off the 2015 edition of the fest on September 3.

A picaresque homage to the Nouvelle Vague, this debut from writer-director Alonso Ruiz Palacios has been collecting accolades as it makes its way around Planet Movie Festival (aka Earth), with Indiewire among those getting all gushy and calling it "one of the best Mexican films of the last decade."

You can be the judge of that, since Mexico happens to be this year's guest country at the 12th edition of the rapidly-growing festival (VLAFF is getting so big it has guest countries...)

Juan Antonio de la Riva has been bringing Durango to Mexican movie screens for over thirty years, and this year VLAFF brings the prolific auteur to you. He'll be in Vancouver to present three of his best known films: Wandering Lives (1985), Wooden Town (1990), and The Mountain Hawk (2002).

Along with another five films in competiton, VLAFF's Mexican fiesta also includes a tribute to Luis Buñuel's collaborations with Canadian-born cinematographer Alex Phillips. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Ascent to Heaven (aka Mexican Bus Ride) were made by the Spanish great during his Mexican exile in the late '40s and early '50s.