The long shadow of world successes such as Alfonso Cuarón's Roma fly over any Mexican film productions with Oscar ambitions, and the reality is that not everyone agrees with the choice of the film that will represent the country on the red carpet.

The Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) said yesterday Monday that Ya no estoy aquí, by director Fernando Frías and released on Netflix, will compete in the 93rd edition of the awards for "Best International Film." 

The film, which got ten statuettes at the Ariel Awards, tells the story of Ulises (Juan Daniel Garcia), a young man who is part of the band Los Terkos, who are immersed in the culture of Kolombia music, popular for years in the northern city of Monterrey.

But after problems with a local cartel, Ulises must escape to the United States where, not surprisingly, he suffers a thousand and one vicissitudes while adapting to the new life.

Although Frías immersed in the Monterrey neighborhoods to document the film and looked to local kids for actors that would play Los Terkos, there are those who have defined this story as a mere youthful soap opera. 

Especially because among the other six titles with which it competed was Nuevo Orden, by Michel Franco, a film that won a Silver Lion in Venice, but has been long criticized for not representing Mexico's reality and follows an upper class couple in Mexico City whose wedding takes place in the middle of a working-class uprising.

However, Franco has also received  comments and mockeries from Internet users after the selected film became known:

"Michel seeing how a film that DOES represent the socio-cultural problems of the country and that also brings in complex themes such as the stripping of the self, the ego and the otherness while using a 10/10 photograph and a ching*na production, beats his film," wrote one user. 

"Somewhere in Polanco you hear Michel Franco crying 'it's because I'm white,'" read another reaction. 

We will have to wait until April 2021 to know if AMACC's choice was the right one. In the meantime, because of the pandemic, you can enjoy Ya no estoy aquí on Netflix and judge for yourself. 

The other Mexican films that competed with Frías' are El ombligo de Guie'dani by Xavi Sala; Esto no es Berlín by Hari Sama; Mano de obra by David Zonana; and Te llevo conmigo by Heidi Ewing.