I Dream in Another Language

2017 1h 41m ES

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 155

FantasyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An indigenous language is in peril, as its last two speakers had a quarrel in the past and haven't spoken to each other in over 50 years. Martín, a young linguist, will undertake the challenge of bringing the old friends back together and convincing them to speak once again so he can obtain a recorded registration of the language and study it.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Eligio Meléndez
Evaristo
José Manuel Poncelis
Isauro
Juan Pablo de Santiago
Young Evaristo
Hoze Meléndez
Young Isauro
Fernando Álvarez Rebeil
Martín
Nicolasa Ortíz Monasterio
María
Héctor Jiménez
Santiago
José Concepción Macías
Fausto

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ernesto Contreras
Writers: Carlos Contreras
Languages: Spanish
Countries: Mexico, Netherlands, Israel

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Mexico, Netherlands, Israel.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Ernesto Contreras, shot by Tonatiuh Martínez. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jorge Macaya shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Eligio Meléndez and José Manuel Poncelis and Juan Pablo de Santiago carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt3278224 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ernesto Contreras directs. Tonatiuh Martínez behind the camera. Jorge Macaya cuts. Produced in Mexico, Netherlands, Israel. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 9 years ago.
2International production across 3 countries: Mexico, Netherlands, Israel.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Ernesto Contreras, shot by Tonatiuh Martínez. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Jorge Macaya shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Eligio Meléndez and José Manuel Poncelis and Juan Pablo de Santiago carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt3278224 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Tonatiuh Martínez
Editing: Jorge Macaya
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Status: Released
Original language: ES
IMDB: I Dream in Another Language (2017)

Awards

Ariel Award for Best Actor
Ariel Award for Best Picture

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Ernesto Contreras

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-09-10
★ 4/10
I Dream in Another Language is ambitious but uneven. It has good ideas, but struggles with the execution. It’s visually flawless, which is a good thing if we subscribe to the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it can also be seen as a triumph of style over substance, especially in a film that’s supposed to be about words – both said and unsaid. And yet, I can’t help liking it, because director Ernesto Contreras and screenwriter Carlos Contreras show a sincere love of language and communication, even if they, somewhat ironically, don’t know quite how to express it. It’s almost as if something was lost in the translation from dream to reality. The movie revolves around a fictitious indigenous language called Zikril. There are other plot points, but this is the most interesting one, though in the end it doesn’t amount to much more than a missed opportunity. I caught exactly two words of Zikril; the rest is nothing but a lot of mumbling – and the problem is not the sound or the actors; as a native speaker, I can assure that the Spanish dialogue comes through loud and clear. Furthermore, we don't learn a lot about the culture that originally gave rise to Zikril, apart from some mythology about how it came into being, as well as learning about the afterlife where its speakers go when they die: a physical place on the mountain called “El Encanto”, to which they apparently ascend, like the Virgin into the heavens, bodily and not just in spirit (the movie is firmly planted in the tradition of magical realism, and is in particular reminiscent of Alejo Carpentier’s novel Los Pasos Perdidos, which it emulates but does not equal). What the film, shot deep in the Veracruzan jungle, does very well, however, is what Werner Herzog calls the ‘voodoo of location.’ All things considered, I Dream in Another Language is intriguing enough to hold the viewer's interest throughout its 103-minute running time, but perhaps the filmmakers should have resorted to some already existing, but still obscure, language, instead of half-assing an entirely new one.

Production companies