I Dream in Another Language

The language you speak reflects how you view the world, how you experience the reality surrounding you. When a language becomes extinct, a unique view of life disappears and memories are lost forever. It’s the central idea of the award-winning I Dream in Another Language, the poetic and at times magic realistic new film by Mexican director Ernesto Contreras. His brother Carlos wrote the script.

The young linguist Martin travels to a village in the Mexican jungle to study and record an almost extinct language: Zikril. Jacinta, one of the three last surviving native speakers, explains that Zikril is the language spoken by all living beings in the jungle. When she dies suddenly, only two Zikril speakers remain: Isauro and Evaristo, old men who have not spoken to each other for ages due to a longstanding grudge. Martin attempts to forge reconciliation between both men.