In Cuarón's films, cinema conjures up its own world, and this one provides the chance to explore it with him more intimately than ever before.

Aparicio, in her acting debut, is remarkable.

Cuarón fills every corner of the frame, just as Fellini did, so that the eye has to roam the screen as though scouring a fresco. But for all the bustle and brio, it's a visually lucid movie.

The personal tragic dimension is never sacrificed to the wider political context. What is equally remarkable is that the reverse doesn’t occur either.