Gods of Mexico Review: A Majestic Journey of Poetry, Anthropology, and Cosmology
Jose Solís○March 3, 2023
Gods of Mexico Review: A Majestic Journey of Poetry, Anthropology, and Cosmology
Jose Solís○March 3, 2023
The Aztec story of creation is one of birth through destruction; of life existing because death occurred. According to their myths, in the beginning, the god Ōmeteōtl (who contained both male and female forces) created itself and gave birth to four children, each representing the cardinal points. From these children sprung the elements and creatures, including a powerful sea monster called Cipactli who waged a battle against the gods that ended in its death, from which the cosmos was born.
Although one simple paragraph doesn’t do justice to the richness of Aztec mythology, one can almost hear whispers of their story of creation in Helmut Dosantos’ majestic Gods of Mexico, a piece of nonfiction that evokes the fascination with which ancient Mesoamerican civilizations viewed the universe. There is a hint of stories being passed orally from generation-to-generation in a film that is, for the most part, dialogue-free, a work that expertly combines poetry, anthropology, and cosmology.
Although it doesn’t have a traditional plot, so to speak, one can trace a retelling of the birth of the world through the images Dosantos captured throughout most of a decade. The film opens in the heavens, or at least in a blindingly bright liminal space where we identify men hard at work below. We learn that they are salt harvesters working in wide fields that look like a fragmented mirror from above, men doing the work assigned to them by deities they have come to know through nature and through the traditions they’ve preserved.
There’s even an allusion to Cipactli in the form of a snake that glides across the reflective pools, the men seemingly unaware of its existence. But don’t expect to draw any immediate connections to mythology, or the Pre-Columbian era, as the film remains rather mysterious but never impenetrable.
More:
https://thefilmstage.com/gods-of-mexico-review-a-majestic-journey-of-poetry-anthropology-and-cosmology/
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