Portrait of childhoods full of life and teachers committed to guiding their souls towards the invaluable knowledge that will make them better people… This promises to offer us the Mexican production the last wagonthe new film by director Ernesto Contreras that will arrive on Netflix at the end of this month, with the participation of the veteran performer Adriana Barraza, nominated for an Academy Award in 2007. Are you ready to know a story where “life teaches us that is the best teacher”?
What is it about the last wagon?
This new film by director Ernesto Contreras will tell the story of Ikal, a boy who travels throughout Mexico because his father works in the repair and construction of railways. However, this nomadic life affects his education and causes a constant feeling of being uprooted. But luckily, everything changes when during one last stop, Ikal ends up at the school of the unyielding teacher Georgina; a place that will also allow him to live with his new friends (Chico, Valeria and Tuerto) and in this way he will feel that he finally belongs to a place. However, the problems will come when Hugo Valenzuela, SEP inspector, arrives in town and threatens to close the Malinalli Tepenepatl Public School (that is, the same one that Ikal attends) as part of his thankless work of closing rural schools.
According to an official Netflix synopsis (via):
«the last wagon tells the emotional adventure of Ikal, a boy who along with his friends will discover the true meaning of friendship, the importance of growing up and the impact that teachers can have on the lives of their students.
Based on the homonymous novel by Ángeles Doñate, the script for the film was the responsibility of Javier Penalosawho comes from co-writing the horror film Do not open the doorby director Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz, and the comedy all the freckles in the world, directed by Yibran Asuad. She previously also lent her pen to Mexican feature films road to mars and the goodbyes.
The cast
The Oscar-nominated actress Adriana Barraza (Babel) stands out in the role of the teacher Georgina. The cast complements it memo villegas (Fire night), Tete Espinoza (Impossible things), jero medina (Are), white war (holy blood), Fatima Molina (I dream in another language), Gabriela Cartol (the chambermaid), new colonel (Single), Adrian Vazquez (Noise) and Leonardo Alonso (New order).
«the last wagon It is an essential story for the human being, which will allow us to be with the family and will make us remember our own experiences as children, as well as those first friends that marked us,” Barraza said in an official statement from Netflix.
In the role of children, emerging talents appear Kaarlo Isaacs (ikal), Frida Cruz (Valerie), Diego Montessoro (boy) and Ikal Walls (one-eyed).
About the manager
Ernesto Contreras is a Mexican filmmaker who has won the Ariel award and has been recognized at the prestigious film festivals of Sundance, Morelia, San Sebastián and Guadalajara. Within his filmography, titles such as blue eyelids (2007), the dark springs (2014), I dream in another language (2017) and Impossible things (2021).
About the last wagon, Contreras has declared that he was able to connect “in such a personal way” with the original novel thanks to the fact that his own mother (now retired) was a passionate elementary school teacher in Veracruz who several former students still greet and thank. And about the adaptation, the director affirms that the realization of it meant “a long journey of exploration and learning.”
“It became the opportunity to tackle a different genre with young, very young actors who filled the film with energy, light and passion, and with actors and actresses whom I deeply admire and respect and with whom it was a pleasure to build each one of the characters and thus enter the world of teaching in very precarious conditions and with the fascinating railway universe of our country”, he added. “It couldn’t be more cinematographic: the wagons, the tracks, the landscapes, its inhabitants, their dreams and a very hard life of work and little reward.”
When it premieres the last wagon?
the last wagona Netflix original movie, will arrive in its catalog on May 26, 2023.
official poster
Trailer for the last wagon
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to lose myself too. Preferably in a movie theater.