Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel Pedro Páramo has served as a major inspiration for countless artists and writers. Gabriel García Márquez read the book before penning his own tour de force One Hundred Years of Solitude. Salman Rushdie has called it the most underrated book (outside of the Spanish-speaking world). Now, lauded cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has chosen to adapt the Mexican classic for his directorial debut.

The story is that of Juan Preciado, a man on a journey to find his long-lost father, Pedro Páramo, in the small town of Comala. On arrival, Juan discovers only a ghost town, where he learns about his father through fragments of memories from the spirits he encounters. “Hope, fear, resentment, and the search for lost love are themes that reverberate through the story,” says Prieto. “I found myself exploring  my own sometimes uneasy connections to the ghosts of previous generations of my family, just like Juan Preciado as he looks for his father and what came before him.”   

Bringing this exemplary piece of magical realism to the screen was no small feat. Prieto gathered a group of celebrated craftspeople to build Comala and the world of Pedro Páramo. Screenwriter Mateo Gil (The Sea Inside,  Agora) developed the script from the source material, while Oscar winner Eugenio Caballero (Roma; BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) and Carlos Y. Jacques (Tales of Mexico, The Eternal Feminine) joined as production designers to erect the town. Anna Terrazas (Roma; BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) costumed the cast, which includes Tenoch Huerta (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) as Juan Preciado and Manuel García-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer) in the titular role.    

For Prieto and fans of the foundational text, which revolutionized Mexican and Latin American literature, the story of Pedro Páramo is one of identity. “I can especially relate to Juan Preciado, who is looking for himself and for his country while searching for his father,” says the director. “He represents the Mexican people in that we are mixed — in our roots and our races.”