LADRONES DE CUADROS

After witnessing a murder, Arcadio – a disillusioned painter turned delivery man in Mexico City – narrowly escapes an attempt on his life and finds refuge at his grandmother’s home in the state of Oaxaca. As days go by peacefully in the village, he meets a mysterious Finnish art conservator and claims some of his grandmother’s paintings as his own – until the strange, unsettling killer finally tracks him down.

Ladrones of Cuadros blends genres – a contemplative drama intersected with an absurdist thriller. It explores many variations on the concept of visible and invisible – what we show or hide from others, and from ourselves – in other words, the very concept of representation. The film also questions truth and beliefs, and the story we choose to tell as a society. That topic resonates deeply in Juan Pablo’s work, which is profoundly influenced by archeology – a discipline that unearths what lies beneath the surface in each of us. It also addresses the question of heritage, how we claim ownership of it, and more broadly, cultural appropriation – a particularly sensitive issue in a country marked by colonisation. Juan Pablo chose to set his film in his native region, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec – a Zapotec area in tropical southern Mexico, often overlooked in tales of prosperity and visibility.