Mexican actress Arcelia Ramirez, star of the film La Civil, received an emotional ovation for eight minutes over the weekend, after the screening of the film at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film, directed by Teodora Mihai, was written by Mihai, with Habacuc Antonio De Rosario, a novelist originally from Reynosa, and reviewed by Miriam Rodriguez before her death.

The film tells the story of Cielo, a character inspired by the life of Miriam Rodriguez, a mother who became a human rights activist in Tamaulipas, northern Mexico, who pursued the men who murdered her daughter and did not stop until she caught them without help from the authorities.

She would later be murdered on May 10, 2017 outside her own home in San Fernando. Rodriguez's life describes the lives of thousands of mothers of missing persons in the context of violence not only in Mexico, but in many parts of Latin America. 

The tribute to her performance and film reached the head of the Mexican Ministry of Culture, Alejandra Frausto, who took the opportunity to congratulate Ramirez and the production of La Civil for making a Mexican film have such an emotional reception at a festival like Cannes. 

In an interview for Life and Style, Ramirez spoke of her experience at the precise moment of receiving the ovation. Beyond the emotion she felt when she saw the film screened in the theater with a full house, she explained that during the ovation, she felt surprised but excited and proud. 

"My daughters were in the front row, and it was an enormous gift of life to be able to share with them this unforgettable moment of my life," she said.