Cinema Guild released the official trailer for 499, Mexican-American filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes, “bold hybrid cinema experience” exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico.
499 opens on Friday, August 20 at BAM Rose Cinemas in New York City, followed by runs at the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles, and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, before continuing on to a national rollout.
Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador (played by newcomer Eduardo San Juan Breña), Reyes recreates Hernán Cortés’ epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City.
As the anachronistic fictional character interacts with real victims and subjects of Mexico’s failed drug wars, the filmmaker portrays the country’s current humanitarian crisis as part of a vicious and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, nearly five-hundred years later.
Watch the official trailer for 499.