Jacaranda Time revives a silenced topic
More than three decades after films like Alfonso Cuarón’s Just with Your Partner (1991) or Gabriel Retes’ Welcome Welcome (1994) touched on the topic in Mexico, national cinema returns to one of the most painful and stigmatized chapters of modern public health. A new film, currently in post-production, delves into the 1980s, when the Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic was synonymous with ignorance, fear and social marginalization.
It is titled Tiempo de jacarandas and is the debut feature of director Francisco Sánchez Solís, known until now for his work as a producer on horror films such as Don’t follow me and Párvulos: niños del apocalipsis. The project, filmed between May and June of last year, represents a turn towards social and family drama.
“It is a family drama set in that time, where the eldest son is sick with AIDS and there is a lot of condemnation. The family does not know how to deal with the issue, there is ignorance and a lot of fear,” explains Karina Gidi, who leads the cast playing the mother.
The cast is completed by Alejandro Puente, Gerardo Trejoluna and rocker Cecilia Toussaint, the latter giving life to the mother-in-law of Gidi’s character. The plot promises to explore not only the disease, but the hostile social climate that turned patients into objects of discrimination and even physical violence, a phenomenon portrayed internationally in emblematic films such as Philadelphia (1993) with Tom Hanks.
A cinematographic void and its current relevance
Historical analysis shows a curious pattern. After a first wave of films on the subject in the early 90s, the global cinematic narrative on HIV/AIDS experienced a notable decline, with few exceptions such as Dallas Buyers Club (2013). This filmic silence makes a production like Tiempo de jacarandas acquire an additional documentary and reflective value.
It’s not just about remembering. According to the team’s statements, the objective is to contrast eras. “It is important that there are these types of stories, so that people see that things have changed, it is not the same as in those times,” says Sánchez Solís. The film seeks to function as a mirror that allows measuring social evolution – or stagnation – in the face of the stigma associated with the disease.
For Karina Gidi, an actress with a consolidated career that includes an Ariel for Los adioses and recently the series Chespirito: sin voluntarily wanting, this role represents an immersion in a raw and necessary drama. Her participation guarantees a crucial interpretive weight to narrate the maternal conflict in the midst of collective panic.
Currently, the film is fine-tuning technical and sound details to begin its tour of film festivals and later seek commercial distribution. Its arrival raises an uncomfortable question: how far have we really come in understanding and compassion since those 1980s where misinformation reigned? Jacaranda Time seems willing to investigate that answer.
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