In this rural family portrait documentary we find ourselves in El Eco, a remote village in northern Mexico, where life consists of the most elementary, basic things. Being a child or teen of labouring farmers here is an intense experience from day one, one which involves nature, animals and people. But also love, intimacy, illness and death and some education – at least for the younger generation.

Director Tatiana Huezo has made a name for herself as a sensitive and poetic documentarian and filmmaker. Accompanying three families in her new work, the notion of meandering becomes an informing principle as she brilliantly weaves a host of faces and gestures into a kaleidoscope of unpretentiousness. Subtly, she portrays the care-working matriarchy in a country notorious for its innumerable kidnappings of young women and girls and examines the unique ties that bind the families, where everyone’s survival hangs on the same cruel elements.

The Echo is a tender film which observes how the younger people's lives echo those of their parents, repeating for generations until someone breaks the pattern.

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