EL CIELO DIVIDIDO (BROKEN SKY)

Mexico, 2006, 140 minutes, Colour.
Fernando Arroyo, Miguel Angel Hoppe.
Directed by Julian Hernandez.

El Cielo Dividido is one of many films by writer-director Julian Hernandez. Since the early 90s he has been making many feature films and quite a number of short films. They all deal with the subject of homosexual relationships. These stories are placed in the context of Mexico and Mexico City. He has been featured at a number of film festivals, especially his 2003 film A Thousand Clouds of Peace.

This film is experimental in style, imitating the styles of silent films and using voice-over. The film can be described as rhetorical as well as poetic. There are references in the screenplay to Aristophanes and to opera. The film also has particular styles of music for its main characters ranging from classical music to electronic and salsa styles.

The film is often explicit in its presentation of the sexual encounters. It focuses on fidelity, infidelity – amongst young men in Mexico City and in the different clubs. It does feature the family background of some of the characters, giving a bit more depth to the theme.

The film takes its time – at well over two hours, giving the audience time to reflect on what they are seeing, the meaning of its themes as well as the social, moral and relational issues.

1.A film about relationships? Love? Sexuality? Homosexuality? The Mexican setting, Mexico City, the university?

2.Mexico City, the universities and the classrooms, the streets, the subways, apartments, clubs? An authentic atmosphere for stylised presentation?

3.The style: using the silent film style, the importance of the voice-over, the rhetoric of the voice-over, the poetry? The class discussion about Aristophanes, comedy and tragedy? Opera and the operatic style? The range of music, electronic, salsa?

4.The director’s approach to sexual issues: homosexuality, relationships, identity, sexual orientation, infatuation and love? Break-up, loss and grief? The realisation of the impact of sexuality on character, personality and relationships? Commitment? Universal themes?

5.The presentation of the sexual encounters, explicit? Exploitive and/or realistic? The theme and the voyeur style of the film?

6.Gerardo’s story: seeing him walking through the city, a student, lectures, studying, the encounter with Jonas, friendship, the relationship? At home? Going to the club, Jonas’s change and its effect on Gerardo? Meeting Sergio? The time passing, the affairs? The pain, the phone call? Gerardo at home – the ordinariness of his life, the sanctuary of his room?

7.Jonas, the young man, the photo, the relationship, in and out of love with Gerardo? Going to the club, the relationship with Bruno? The distance from Gerardo? Contact and lack of contact? The realisation of change? Mood? The return to Gerardo?

8.Sergio at the club, at the library? Watching Gerardo? Sergio and his girlfriend? Gerardo going with him, the apartment, the relationship, the encounter? The end, the declaration of love? Gerardo leaving?

9.The background characters, the university? Home, Gerardo’s mother? Women in this world?

10.A film of moods, the characters, their moodiness? The impact on the audience? The final resolution – and hope for a permanent relationship and commitment for the future? Or not? The work of the director – in his early thirties? His own experience of life?