Interview

Carlos Cuaron; Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna at the premiere of Rudo y Cursi. Photos by Derek Storm

Carlos Cuaron is the director of Rudo y Cursi, the improbable story of two brothers plucked from their village when they're picked up by the national soccer team. The film just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; Cuaron previously wrote Y Tu Mamá También, which means that he's kept it in the family with the pairing of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. But he's ambivalent about being a key figure in the community of Mexican New Wave Cinema. "Am I?" the filmmaker said, "I just make films. I didn't know I was part of that." But even the money-wrangling of production is friends and family for this crop of film-makers: after all, Rudo y Cursi is the first film from Cha Cha Cha, a new production company by and for Carlos' director brother, Alfonso, and directors Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Alejandro González Iñárritu. The next project is Biutiful, a film Iñárritu is currently editing in Barcelona. Nothing, it seems, can keep this pack apart. Maybe football? Cuaron plays every Saturday. His favorite team in Mexico is Cosa Su, but, "It's a bad question, because it is the worst team this season."