“En el camino”, an intense Mexican road movie
Now showing in our cinemas: the film that won the Orizzonti competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival
One of the most award-winning Mexican films of recent years is amongst this weekend’s new cinema releases: David Pablos’s *En el camino* has been released in our cinemas this week; it was screened at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Best Film Award in the Orizzonti section and the 2025 Queer Lion.
“En el camino” went on to take part in several other international film festivals, won further awards and is now also Mexico’s official entry for the 2027 Oscars.
At the heart of the plot is Veneno, a rebellious young drug dealer who frequents the roadside inns along the motorways of northern Mexico, where he spends his nights amongst lorry drivers and criminal figures. Desperately in need of a lift, one night he meets Muñeco, a tough and reserved lorry driver, and convinces him to take him along into the tough, macho world of long-haul haulage. As they travel together, an unexpected bond forms between them and the shadows of Veneno’s past resurface, putting both their lives at risk.
Now on his fourth feature film, Pablos demonstrates a high degree of maturity as a director and storyteller with this intense and gripping road movie, which takes a dramatic turn that is entirely different from what we might initially expect.
Whilst it is fairly obvious from the outset that the film builds a good level of tension, one eventually discovers a curious sentimental side to it, through an encounter that defies the rules of a world dominated by rigid codes of a certain kind of masculinity.
