“A young mother runs across a mountain meadow with her children and they save a sheep from drowning. A girl cares for her elderly grandmother so tenderly that you want to cry while another practices being a teacher with just the right tone of voice, her dolls lined up before her as willing pupils. The fathers are mostly absent: as construction workers or tradesmen, they rarely share their daily lives with their families. In El Eco, a remote village in northern Mexico, life consists of the most elementary things. Being a child here is an intense experience from day one, involving nature, animals and people. But also love, intimacy, illness and death. And education – at least for the younger generation,” reads the synopsis of the new Mexican documentary El Eco, which runs 102 minutes. 

Screened at the Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale), one of the most important film festivals in the world, the Mexican production won the Best Documentary award and its director, Tatiana Huezo, won Best Director.

“In rural surroundings, young people discover the world. Luminous, intimate images of a grandmother, rainstorms, and school classrooms reveal a complex community. This deeply affectionate film shows time passing, a world opening up. It is a fascinating new piece in the director’s already distinguished body of work. Our award goes to Tatiana Huezo for El eco,” the jury said in its statement about choosing the film. 

“It's too much. Thank you so much. This is an incredible night. Thanks to all the people who believed in me, and who have walked with me for many years now, very stubborn and I like to believe that cinema is the path of resistance, the documentary is a path of resistance, an act of love, an act of faith. This is for the inspiration of my life, my children's girl, Mirati, my daughter, and for all the women filmmakers in Mexico, who have made their way, and to all the directors who paved the way for us," Huezo said when collecting her awards.

In addition to El Eco, the Mexican films Tótem by Lila Avilés and Adolfo by Sofía Auza won the Ecumenical Jury Competition and the Crystal Bear of the Young Jury in the Generation 14plus 2023 section, respectively.