First film that addresses the Mexican Revolution with a female protagonist. In the south of the state of Morelos, young Angustias, the daughter of the generous bandit Antón Farrera, suffers discrimination from her neighbours for being a woman, an orphan, black, poor and illiterate. After stabbing a man who tries to rape her, she flees to the mountains and joins the Zapatista troops. Becoming a colonel, the young woman follows the teachings of her father and imparts justice among women and peasants.
Matilde Landeta
Mexican screenwriter and director born in 1913 and died in 1999. Recognised as one of the pioneers of Latin American cinema made by women, she received an Ariel award for her entire career in 1992. She was hardly twenty years old when she began her career as a script, and in 1945 she began to work as assistant director to Julio Bracho, Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández or Agustín Delgado. Despite multiple boycott attempts against her, she managed to make her way into the intricate world of Mexican cinema and eventually established herself as a director. In 1948 she mortgaged her home to found Tacma, the company which produced ‘Lola Casanova’ (1948), her filmmaking debut. This was followed by films such as ‘La negra Angustias’ (1949), ‘Trotacalles’ (1951) and ‘Nocturno a Rosario’ (1992).