The Mourning Of

A short drama written and directed by Merced Elizondo and starring Natalia Villegas and Julio Cesar Cedillo.

As the title suggests, this film is about loss. Maribel (Villegas), a young woman who is attending one funeral after another. This is not because many loved ones have passed away. It is because she is dealing with loss and has decided that going to funerals might heal her emotional wounds, might help her deal with her grief. So she repeatedly goes to funerals of strangers and blends in, offering her sympathy to the attendees and experiencing the service, much to the disapproval of Tomas (Cedillo), a priest who is aware of her unconventional activities.

This is certainly an unusual and intriguing story: a person who has lost someone believes that going to funerals will help, whether that is to mourn, to deal with the loss, to make themselves feal better by comforting the mourners and be comforted by them, or maybe all of these. As interesting as this seems, it is also shocking and questionable: why would a person decide to relive an event (funeral) that acknowledges the end of the life of a person that they cared about? It seems irrational that someone who is mourning would willingly and repeatedly go through the same procedures that they went through when their loved one passed away. Why would they want to relive those painful moments? Perhaps thinking about this is what makes the plot of this short stand out.

Regarding the technical side of things, the film gains a lot thanks to the wonderful cinematography by Matheus Bastos and the creative editing by Jonathan Cuartas. The audio elements are another plus, containing pipe organ music and the addition of Lacrimosa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ave Maria by Franz Peter Schubert were great choices.

Maribel is quite an intriguing character and she is the center of the story. She has suffered a devastating loss and does not appear to know how to handle it. For months, she has been attending funerals of people she did not know and going through the same experiences and as a result, in some ways, she seems to be stuck in time. A terrific performance by Villegas clearly shows the heavy pain she is dealing with. Tomas is very uncomfortable with her actions, however, he is sympathetic towards her and tries to convince her that she needs to stop what she is doing and move on.

Loss is a key theme here, particularly the complexities of dealing with loss, along with self-reflection and moving on.

A heavy drama about the issues of having to face a loss. The film examines an unusual way of mourning and does not seem to determine whether that way is right or wrong. The final message might be that sometimes, people resolve to uncommon solutions in order to make themselves feel better.