Antonio and Bertha are an elderly couple in their nineties who find themselves in deep trouble when pensions are suspended due to a social and financial crisis in their country. Given they haven’t seen their two children for many years, the couple is confronted with the need to survive on their own and must face the hard reality of selling their belongings and peddling tamales on the street or turn to crime. Everything changes when their son Jonas and grandson Paco, absent for more than ten years, unexpectedly reappear in their lives.
A dark, tender, universal tale of life and its cycles in times of financial crisis, El comienzo del tiempo (The Beginning of Time, Mexico, 2014) was named as best film at the 2015 Beijing International Film Festival, and won also the Málaga Film Festival award for best Latin American movie. The film was directed by Bernardo Arellano, starring Antonio Pérez Carbajal, Bertha Olivia Ramírez, Francisco Barreiro and José Sefami.