Luis Estrada Satire ‘¡Que Viva México!’ Acquired By Sony Pictures International Productions

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures International Productions has picked up worldwide theatrical rights to ¡Que Viva México! — the latest in a series of political satires from filmmaker Luis Estrada — slating it 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.

Motivated 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 (El Infierno), Ana de la Reguera (Army of the Dead), Ana Martín (El Pecado de Oyuki) and Angelina Peláez (Presencias). Estrada directed from his script and story written with Jaime Sampietro (El Infierno), also serving as the pic’s producer, with Sandra Solares aboard as exec 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.”

Shebnem Askin and Michael Rifkin head up Sony Pictures International Productions — the local-language production arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group, which releases over 30 films annually across 12 territories around the world.