Sundown

Acapulco, Mexico: Neil (Tim Roth) spends a relaxing vacation in a luxury hotel on the beach with his sister Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and their teenage children. The wealthy Brits' life seems perfect. But the news that their mother is dying at home disturbs the idyll. The vacation is immediately cut short. At check-in at the airport, Neil pretends to have forgotten his ID at the hotel. He insists that the others travel back without him and promises to join them the next day. Instead, Neil rents a cheap hotel and begins to question his previous life. He passes the time drinking beer on the beach - and with the attractive local girl Berenice (Iazua Larios). Alice, on the other hand, takes responsibility for the influential family business immediately after her mother's death. When she returns to Acapulco a few weeks later to confront Neil, the unthinkable happens... Director Michel Franco skillfully orchestrates all the surprising twists and turns of his ingenious screenplay into a gripping family thriller full of subtle suspense. We don't want to give too much away here. However, the mere fact that Neil and Alice are the heirs of an industrial slaughterhouse opens up a wide range of associations: “Economic relations of exploitation, neo-colonial aspects of tourism in the global South and the violent history of industrial murder emanating from the practice of modern slaughter come to mind. However, Franco's play with themes of social control and the dissolution of boundaries is even more convincing than this obvious moral criticism. While the career-conscious Alice seems to be interwoven with the smartphone at the beginning of the film, which even her children can barely wrest from her, the cell phone becomes the hub of Neil's disconnection from society. [...] Michel Franco plays with an idea that dares to create a provocative utopia in an age of permanent self-control and total networking: what if these regulatory mechanisms were switched off and people simply followed their spontaneous instincts? What chaos and outrage would ensue - and what freedom would suddenly be possible? Franco succeeds in creating a highly exciting plot experiment whose naturalism skillfully intensifies the irritation. “Sundown” is like a mind-game movie without the usual formal stylizations. [...] All the more fascinating, however, is how Michel Franco once again succeeds in interweaving psychological and social aspects to create an original critique of our times.” (Silvia Bahl, on: filmdienst.de) For “Sundown - Secrets in Acapulco”, director Michel Franco received his second invitation to the competition of the Venice Film Festival after “New Order - The New World Order”. In 2023, he was invited to the Lido for a third time with the relationship drama “Memory”. Franco's other films are also among the critically acclaimed entries at the major international A-list festivals. His film “Chronic”, also starring Tim Roth, won the screenplay prize in the Cannes competition. Most recently, Franco's relationship drama “Dreams” with Jessica Chastain competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2025.