La fórmula secreta/The Secret Formula/Coca-Cola en la sangre (1965) -
Rubén Gámez
An essay film makes up of images alluding to the construction of a Mexican identity built from its contradictions, symbols, and complicated relationship with its neighboring country. A string of sausages runs across the screen, a Mexican cowboy chases a bureaucrat, a body gets a transfusion of Coca-Cola. These are some of the sequences, along with a poem by Juan Rulfo, that come together to make a unique and irreverent language that is, within its own surrealist logic, closer to reality than the one promoted by the Golden Cinema of the time. Its metaphorical discourse puts it in confrontation with capitalism, cultural homogenization and their social consequences. Gámez's work steered Mexican cinema into a new direction, a legacy which remains relevant today.
