Sony Pictures International Productions Acquires Worldwide Rights to Luis Estrada’s “¡Que Viva México!”

Long live Luis Estrada’s Mexico

Sony Pictures International Productions has picked up the worldwide theatrical rights to ¡Que Viva México!, the latest in a series of political satires from the 61-year-old Mexican film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Luis EstradaThe film is slated for release on more than 3,000 screens across Mexico, via Sony Pictures Releasing International, on March 23.

The film follows Pancho Reyes (Alfonso Herrera), a prosperous and “aspirational” middle class man who 20 years ago, abandoned his hometown and entirely forgot all about his very large and very poor family. One day, he receives unexpected news, when his father informs him that his grandfather, Don Francisco Reyes (Joaquín Cosío), a rich old miner, just passed away, and that he is part of his will and possible heir.

Alfonso Herrera, Que Viva MexicoMotivated by greed, Pancho decides to go back to the remote town of La Prosperidad to meet with his estranged and resented family, taking his wife, kids, and maid with him. But the mere presence of Pancho, his grandfather’s favorite — considered by his whole family as an arrogant and ungrateful showoff — and the possibility that he may be one of the heirs in the will, arises old feelings of envy and hate that have been kept under the surface for so long, causing a grand battle. A war over the inheritance ensues between Pancho and his folksy and tacky family: The Reyes of La Prosperidad.

¡Que Viva México! also stars Damián Alcázar, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Martín and Angelina Peláez.

Estrada directed from his script and story written with Jaime Sampietro, who also served as the film’s producer, with Sandra Solares aboard as executive producer.

Estrada told Deadline that “¡Que Viva México! is an acid social fable and a poisonous political satire; grotesque with a lot of black humor that, like a soulless mirror, shows and portrays us all in these times of polarization and intolerance but not in a realistic or naturalistic tone…but with the distortion given by parody, farce, magical realism and caricature. All framed in that little personal hell to which we all belong and that we all, for better or for worse, have and suffer: The Family.”