The Hidden Politics of Roma

How Alfonso Cuarón makes the personal political

Despite losing out on the Best Picture Academy Award, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma picked up three Oscars: Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language film. For a moment, it came very close to becoming the first non-English film to win the Best Picture category in Academy Awards’ history.

The film’s success is well-deserved. Every moment of the film — from the four-minute opening sequence where the hero of the story mops the floor of dogs poop, to the utterly captivating moment she wades into the churning surf of the ocean — is part of an intricate jewel-like structure of symbolic connections. Critics are united on the point that Roma is at the very least a masterpiece of cinematography, a movie of set pieces perfectly set in place.

Cuarón wrote, produced, directed and shot a very personal film based on his own childhood in Colonia Roma, Mexico City. The love invested in the project shines through the pristine, shimmering screen as it pans and glides through the lives of the two women that raised him.

The domestic drama of Roma principally follows Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez (played by the untrained Yalitza Aparicio), a maid of indigenous Mixtec origin working for a wealthy family. Sofía (Marina de Tavira), her employer and the…