Sujo (2024). Paz imperfecta y resistencia subjetiva frente a la violencia en México

Our objective is to identify and analyse recent cinematic representations of the subjective resistance of children and adolescents in violent contexts in Mexico. To this end, we focus on the film Sujo (Valadez and Rondero, 2024), which offers a unique insight into the dilemmas faced by many families who have lost a member to a criminal organisation and the very particular way in which the son of a hitman finds an alternative to his supposed destiny. Theoretically, we start from the link between the concepts of imperfect peace, care, subjective resistance and cinematic realism to define and examine the peaceful practices of subjective resistance brought into play in the film. Our methodology is qualitative and seeks to contribute to the disciplinary intersection of peace studies, psychoanalysis and cinema. We believe that only a multidisciplinary approach allows us to understand the possible peaceful paths for the country. Thus, our results contribute to the literature on peacebuilding, highlighting the power of cinema to nurture the moral imagination, especially by overcoming the division of dualisms such as good and evil in a scenario of structural violence such as that of our country.