When a short student film described by the director as “an exercise for school” wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes, you can be sure this is someone to watch. Elisa Miller’s Ver Llover (translated Watching it Rain) was featured with a host of other shorts by Mexican directors in this year’s Great Expectations program. The lineup was dominated by hard-hitting dramas with more than their share of gritty sex and death (taking a cue from Iñárritu?). In contrast, Miller’s ode to young love reads like a deceptively simple haiku.
She told me how the true drama is often in the little things, and we talked about the exciting new crop of young Mexican directors, supported by the more established “Tres Amigos” (Iñárritu, Cuarón and Del Toro).