Roma Review
Director
- Alfonso Cuaron
Main Cast
- Yalitza Aparicio as Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez
- Marina de Tavira as Sofía
- Fernando Grediaga as Antonio
- Jorge Antonio Guerrero as Fermín
- Marco Graf as Pepe
- Daniela Demesa as Sofi
- Diego Cortina Autrey as Toño
- Carlos Peralta as Paco
- Verónica García as Teresa
- José Manuel Guerrero Mendoza as Ramón
- Latin Lover (Victor Manuel Resendiz Ruiz) as Professor Zovek
Paper instructions
Set in Mexico City, this film explores a middle class family’s experience of social unrest and family problems in 1970. The backdrop of the family’s struggles is the Dirty War in Mexico, and particularly the Mexican government’s crackdown on student protestors and critics of the ruling party, the PRI. But, the film also invites the viewer to consider the position of indigenous people in Mexican society. Cleo is a young indigenous woman who works in the family home. As such, this film connects particularly with weeks 12-14.
Your assignment is to write a critical review of Roma that evaluates the film in the context of our semester. In order to do this, you will need to draw on the assigned readings from class. You must use the two readings assigned from class. (No outside readings, though. Let’s keep it focused on the resources we’ve used in class.) There are also readings specific to this film on Canvas. Each paper should include a short overview of the plot, the important characters, and a discussion of the historical themes that they embody. Then, with reference to the readings, evaluate the historic merits of the film. Analyze the readings in the context of the film, and the film in the context of the readings.
It is up to you which historical themes you decide to emphasize from the theme, but you must be able to connect them to specifics in either the primary or secondary readings at your disposal.
Please note that this paper is to be entirely your own work. You may not use internet resources or other outside readings. Stick to the readings that have been assigned in class. Whenever you use ideas from those readings, whether explicitly or not, you must cite them in footnotes. Citations should conform to Turabian style. A guide to Turabian style citations is available here. We will be keeping up with reviews of the film available online. The one exception to outside-class resources available for writing this paper is the film’s page on the Internet Movie Database, which you may only use to keep track of and correctly spell the names of the characters.