‘Pedro Parámo’ Review: Life and Death Blur Together in Haunting Mexican Drama

TIFF 2024: Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto makes his directorial debut with an adaptation simultaneously personal and mystical

Pedro Paramo
Toronto International Film Festival

“Pedro Páramo” is not the kind of movie you’d expect to be the directorial debut of the cinematographer who shot “Barbie” — unless you know that that cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, also shot “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Silence,” “Babel,” “21 Grams” and many other films that studiously avoid hot pink in any and all forms. 

Rodrigo has been one of the most prolific and adventurous cinematographers of recent years (including, not to be dismissive, the well-shot “Barbie”), and if he’s drawing inspiration from any of the directors he worked for, it’s probably Iñárritu. “Pedro Páramo,” which had its world premiere on Saturday at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, carries echoes of “Bardo” in the fact that it is simultaneously personal and mystical.

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