Book excerpt: The international successes of Amores Perros and Y tu mamá también alerted the eyes of the world to the riches to be found in Mexican cinema, from the talents of directors Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón to the poster-boy looks and electrifying screen presence of Gael García Bernal. Their rise to prominence, abetted by a new entrepreneurial spirit amongst Mexican financiers and producers, coincided with an emerging generation of Mexican cinemagoers thirsting for intelligent, identity-affirming, locally-made product. Having endured a period of relative famine throughout the eighties and nineties, Mexican audiences once more had a national cinema to shout about, and the global audience and Hollywood too have had to sit up and take notice. Jason Wood's book, featuring extensive interviews with all the key figures of the buena onda, offers a hugely insightful look at Mexico's colourful film culture, tracing its recent successes back to key historical films, and to the social, political, individual and collective creative forces that helped give birth to it.