Box-Office Smash 'The Perfect Dictatorship' Holds a Mirror to Mexican Frustrations John Hecht - The Hollywood Reporter
go to original January 7, 2015

La Dictadura Perfecta Trailer (La Dictadura Perfecta)

Luis Estrada's political satire The Perfect Dictatorship was the top-grossing Mexican film last year, yet many will remember it as an uncomfortable reminder of all that's gone terribly wrong in the country.

The controversial movie is a biting look at political corruption, drug-related violence and the mainstream media's collusion with the government — the very issues that now have thousands of people marching in Mexico's streets every week.

The title refers to a famous quote from Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who once called Mexico's ruling party, known as the PRI, a "camouflaged dictatorship," thereby making it "the perfect dictatorship."

The Perfect Dictatorship connected big time with moviegoers, grossing about $14 million after nine weeks in theaters. It did so at a time when Mexico is seeing large-scale unrest spurred by a recent incident in which 43 students in the southern Mexico town of Iguala were kidnapped by police, handed over to a drug gang and most likely massacred. Former Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca, who allegedly ordered the police action, has been charged with multiple counts of homicide.

All across Mexico, people have grown fed up with a drug war that has left an estimated 80,000 people dead since 2006. That's more casualties than the Vietnam War, according to the National Archives website.

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