

The Devil Smokes
Description
Telling the story of five siblings fending for themselves in the wake of parental abandonment, this tender, well-crafted film won Berlinale’s inaugural Perspectives Award for fiction debut. It’s 1990 and Mexico eagerly awaits the second visit of Pope John Paul II while the Palacios López family wrangles with a different visitation, real or imagined. When the quintet’s mom disappears and five pairs of shoes appear out of nowhere, imaginative youngster Victor claims, “The Devil brought them.” Their unstable grandmother Romana, left behind as caretaker when the kids’ father goes to find his wife, encourages the thought that something malevolent is at work. In a tale replete with generational mental health issues, superstition, and religious belief, director Ernesto Martínez Bucio employs an impressively diverse style with home movie footage that fills in important backstory information and tight close-ups that reflect the increasingly claustrophobic tension in the household. Stellar performances from a very young cast of non-professionals further buoys the narrative. —Rod Armstrong

Ernesto Martínez Bucio is a writer, director, and editor who studied communication at the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, and cinematography at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico City. Among his short films are Benjamin (2007), Cenizas (2011), Las razones del mundo (2015), T. Rex (2015), and El Futuro (2018). His debut feature, The Devil Smokes, won the Perspective Award for Best First Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Film Details
LanguageSpanish
Original Language TitleEl diablo fuma
Year2025
Runtime97
CountryMexico
DirectorErnesto Martínez Bucio
ProducerCarlos Hernández Vázquez, Gabriela Gavica Marrufo, Alejandro Durán
Executive ProducerCarlos Hernández Vázquez, Gabriela Gavica Marrufo, Alejandro Durán
EditorErnesto Martínez Bucio, Odei Zabaleta, Karen Plata
CinematographerOdei Zabaleta
CastMariapau Bravo Aviña, Rafael Nieto Martínez, Regina Alejandra
Print SourceBendita Film Sales
Closed CaptionsClosed Captions are not currently confirmed for this film
Audio DescriptionAudio Descriptions are not currently confirmed for this film
American Sign Language (ASL) InterpretationAmerican Sign Language Interpretation is not currently scheduled for this film