Vivos

synopsis

At the end of September 2014, a group of students from the Ayotzinapa School of Education was brutally attacked by the police and masked assailants while passing through the city of Iguala. Six people were killed and another forty-three are missing after being abducted. Since then, their relatives have been living in uncertainty, unsuccessfully asking government authorities for the truth. In their minds, the victims are still alive. By alternating meditative, lyrical images and intimate interviews with the survivors, Ai Weiwei builds a complex, overly empathetic account of the tragedy caused by the repressive practices of a corrupt state where justice is almost impossible to obtain.

„The film is not an investigative documentary. It puts aside the facts uncovered by investigations into the case, paying more attention to how human survival is maintained under such circumstances. How does an ordinary family, after losing a loved one, face this society? How do they face themselves in their domestic lives? They must confront a reality they are unprepared for, which is the need to demand justice from the government and society.“ A. Weiwei

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