Y Tu Mamá También | 2012
The unlikely premise – older married woman Luisa (Maribel Verdú) ups sticks and takes to the road with a couple of hormonally-driven teens (Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna) to find a mythically perfect beach – only makes sense at the downbeat conclusion. Director Alfonso Cuarón went on to bring depth and darkness to the Harry Potter franchise with Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, and the powerful Children Of Men.
The setting is Mexico City, where Julio (Bernal) has to collect car keys from his sister at the National University, in the 1950s University City campus, south of the city. Finding the campus was taken over by a political unrest, Cuarón weaves the demo into the film.
The privileged kids leave the city behind and travel southeast through Oaxaca, Mexico’s poorest state.
The legendary (and fictitious) beach, ‘Boca del Cielo’, is at Bahias de Huatulco, about 70 miles east of Puerto Escondido on Mexico’s southern coast. The resort is an attempt to mix tourist infrastructure with an ecological conservation area.
The first beach at which they arrive is Cacaluta, one of the nine secluded bays at the resort, and fairly inaccessible. The beach with the bar where the three end up dancing together is San Agustin, the westernmost bay, reached by a dirt road from Hwy-200, Carretera Costera, near Huatulco International Airport.