Noise, or Ruido, is a drama film released in 2022, jointly produced by Mexico and Argentina and helmed by Natalia Beristáin. Alongside co-writers Diego Enrique Osorno and Alo Valenzuela Escobedo, Beristáin crafted a film that deeply critiques violent socio-political realities, systemic shortcomings, and the grief deeply rooted in the anguish of families who bear the brunt of disappearances. Noise intimately and politically portrays the mother’s devastating journey of searching for her daughter within a vast landscape of tragedy. Its understated direction combined with remarkable performances renders the film’s exploration mournfully intimate.
Heat San Sebastian International Film Festival hosted the world premiere of Noise in 2022, from where the movie garnered considerable critical attention. Later, Netflix streamed it to a worldwide audience in early 2023, where it continued to gain attention.
Plot Summary
In the film, Julia, a nuanced character played by seasoned actress Julieta Egurrola, embodies the caring but devastated mother. In the movie, her character Ger has been missing for nine months. Julia last saw her daughter talking about a pending vacation in a video message. Subsequently, Ger vanished the last time she entered a bar.
When law enforcement authorities provide no answers and a bureaucratic structure shuts every door, Julia takes the situation into her own hands. Her journey reveals the scope of purposeful and unintentional government inaction and systemic rot. She meets women—mothers, daughters, sisters, friends—one by one, each searching for a dear one who went missing and each bearing the unseen yet deep wounds of uncertainty and grief. Collectively, they form a painful yet beautiful fragment of defiance, bound by shared suffering and hopelessness.
Julia is joined by Abril, played by Teresa Ruiz, a journalist that assists her in pursuing different leads and provides a link between the investigation’s more personal and political angles. Every direction they pursue offers new clues; however, it comes at a cost. Both of them—alongside the greater public—face abuse, intimidation, and violence from state and criminal entities. With every step closer to the truth, they nosedive deeper into danger.
There are no satisfying answers when the film concludes. Ger remains untraceable, justice sits idly along with a system that is in disrepair. Through their protests, communal mourning, and acts of valiant defiance, women in Noise fight to ensure their voices do not become muted. Their cries resonate beyond the streets and the walls of each frame of the film, permeating every corner of the world.
Thematic and Symbolic Meanings
- Systemic Violence and Impunity
A Noise is an epitome of institutional failure. Julia’s story showcases the inadequacies of law enforcement, justice, and government structures that are either captured by inertia or entrenched in apathy. The film does not indulge in caricatures, portraying survivors doing the dirty work as a stark, chilling reality.
- Female Empowerment
Although violence and loss dominate the storyline, the film intertwines themes of strength and courage at its core. Women like Julia and Abril, along with other women they meet, weave an intricate tapestry of collective suffering and resiliency. These women assert themselves by protesting populated spaces and refuting the expectation of silence in a world that often silences their strife.
- Sound and Silence
A Noise augments the title. At a larger, conceptual level, it captures the sound of protests; at a more intimate level, it encapsulates grief’s internal turmoil. Beristáin demonstrates mastery over sound design with artistry that suffocates loss in silence and articulates urgency and rage through sound.
- Motherhood and Grief
The role of Julia as a mother serves as the story’s hinge. Rather than theatrical, her grief is internal—suffocating yet quietly explosive. In a bid to search for Ger, her motherhood politics becomes a form of solidarity with other mourning mothers. The film portrays a mother’s love as both gentle and a source of steadfast yet unyielding strength.
Performances and Direction
One of the standout performances in recent Mexican cinema is given by Julieta Egurrola, who plays Julia. While her dialogue is limited and emotions controlled, her performance conveys the character’s despair, determination, and dignity. Julia’s journey includes a great deal of silence, and in those moments, her gaze often communicates to a greater extent than words could express.
As Abril, the journalist that becomes Julia’s emotional ally, Teresa Ruiz enriches the narrative further. Her performance, although understated, proves pivotal as she acts as both companion and chronicler to Julia’s journey.
The film is imbued with a personal touch from the director, Natalia Beristáin, who also worked on the script. Throughout the film, she refrains from dramatizing tragedy and instead captures the story unfolding in a grounded manner. Her commitment to realism and empathy turned Noise into a deeply humane experience.
The film’s visuals are simple but striking. Dariela Ludlow, the cinematographer, captures Mexico’s rural and urban settings with understated elegance. The visuals are always meaningful, capturing everything from the sterile interiors of government offices to the frenzied atmosphere of a protest march.
Reception and Impact
Both critics and audiences received Noise exceptionally well. Viewers were divided, some finding the pacing slow and the ending abrupt, while many others lauded the film for its depth, both emotionally and politically. It has been termed a must-see film for those seeking to comprehend the gradual yet continuous crisis of disappearances in Latin America, Mexico in particular.
The film was particularly impactful for people exposed to the real-life pandemic of missing people in that part of the world. Families, advocates, and journalists appreciated the film’s candid depiction of their reality, celebrating that it did not exploit or minimize the issue.
Noise gained recognition, not only for its artistry at international film festivals, but also for its boldness in addressing such a weighty and contemporary subject matter. The film reached a wider audience after being released on an international streaming platform, shining a light on an issue that has received little attention in mainstream media – the Los Angeles–Mexico border crisis.
Last Thoughts
Noise is not entertainment in the traditional sense; it is a form of meditation on loss, rage, love, and endurance. It serves as an act of remembrance for the vanished and as a societal demand for a society that has lavished neglect upon too many families.
Emotionally honest performances alongside a compelling narrative bestow voice to the voiceless, and the film profoundly achieves this goal. While Julia’s story may be fictional, she symbolizes countless real individuals whose lives violence and chronic inaction have mercilessly shattered.
Noise is now regarded as one of the most significant Latin American films of its time, and that is due to its resolute decision to embrace truth over resolution. It stands as both an important cry of pain and a profound beacon of hope; a reminder that, all too often, the only determined response to oppressive silence is to make desperate noise.
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