Carlos Reygadas’ 2010 Short, Este es mi reino (This Is My Kingdom)

Este es mi reino (This Is My Kingdom) is Mexican director Carlos Reygadas‘ contribution to the 2010 anthology film, Revolución. The film is comprised of ten short films about the concept of revolution, relating in whatever way to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The other Mexican directors with shorts in the film are: Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Amat Escalante, Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo García, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, and Patricia Riggen.

Reygadas, best known for his feature films that include Japan, Battle in Heaven, Silent Light and Post Tenebras Lux, draws a connection between revolution and destruction in his short. Slant Magazine‘s Andrew Schenker describes the film as an “apocalyptic vision,” observing:

“Reygadas brilliantly uses sounds and images devoid of specific context to generate an ineluctable feeling of mounting hysteria. Building from rapid snippets of conversation among the varied assembly of people at a countryside retreat to even rapider snippets of action once the guests turn to downing copious amounts of booze, throwing bricks at cars and setting everything in sight on fire, the Battle in Heaven auteur imagines revolution as the coming together of people with diverse interests in the pursuit of a giddy destruction.”