CIRCO – The Review

If you have ever had an illusory dream to join the circus, CIRCO, a documentary film by Aaron Schock, will dispel any myths about the reality of what it takes to live life in the ring.  Filmed throughout rural Mexico, CIRCO is a bittersweet portrait of the Ponce family, and life in a traveling circus.  Exploring both the economic and cultural pressures facing their traditional way of life, the film expressively captures the ups and downs of a life on the road in rural Mexico.

A century-old family business, the Ponce family circus has survived extinction thus far, due to the dedication of its family members.  In order to ensure its long-term survival, the circus requires a no-exit policy.  But much to the chagrin of Grandma and Grandpa Ponce, the owners and solo shareholders of the family circus, with love comes marriage and with marriages comes the possibility of losing a valuable circus member.

One of the last remaining Ponce sons committed to the family circus, Tino, has committed everything he has to the good of the circus: including his wife and four children.  Tino’s family is the bedrock of the Ponce circus.  His wife maintains the home and prepares all of the food to be sold at the performances, while he and his children account for the majority of the circus performances.  Additionally, Tino and his sons provide the physical manpower needed to strike and pitch the circus from week to week as it moves throughout the countryside.
The constant demands from the circus, his parents, and his wife, puts a tremendous strain on the family and a constant source of tension throughout the film.  Despite mounting pressure from his wife to spend more time with his family and to demand more remuneration from his parents in return for their hard work, Toni is committed to the Ponce circus and the only way of life he has known. Torn between his ties to the circus, his parents, and his wife and family, Tino is ultimately placed in an unenviable position and forced to face a most difficult decision.  However, born and raised in the circus, he can imagine no alternative.
Ivonne, by contrast, is from a home and a town.  Like most Circus wives we learn, she began her new life on the road, after being asked by Toni to “come along” when his family’s circus landed in her hometown.  Having accepted this invitation and sacrificed herself and her family life for years, she now questions just how sustainable or beneficial her commitment really is.

The children portray the hard work of the circus life most poignantly. As 12-year old Moises drives a steak into the ground at dawn, he also drives home the point that it is not simply the adults, but also the children who are required to carry more than their weight to keep the circus running smoothly.  Once the tent is pitched, the children begin their training as they play and practice their routines.  Despite their tiring travelling schedule, the show must go on; and they are the show.

One of the many prices of the circus life is the foregoing of such basics as education. While Tino’s 10-year old daughter, Alexia is a stunning contortionist, she can’t read or write.  This perhaps only occurs to Alexia in the context of her 5-year old cousin, Nadilyn who had up until now lived with the grandparents in the circus, but her mother made the difficult decision to choose education over the circus for her future.  Later, we see that it is not solely the children who have not had the opportunity of education when Ivonne is shown helping Tino form his letters in order to practice writing his name.

Ivonne puts it best when, in an intimate scene during the film, she faces the camera to explain, “you have kids to give them everything, not to have them give you everything.” Torn between her love for Tino and her children, she is faced with what filmmaker, Aaron Shock described in an interview as a “conflicting view of filial responsibility”:should parents serve children, or should children serve parents?

In spite of the hardships of the circus due to the mounting financial and familial pressures, the circus is shown to be a place where creativity is fostered and ties bind.  The changing cultural landscape in Mexico as felt through its impact on the Ponce family makes for a pressing narrative rather than simply a nostalgic portrait of a by-gone era.  CIRCO is a heartfelt and thought-provoking film portraying the universal difficulty of navigating the terrain between family and self on the winding back roads of life.

OVERALL RATING: 3 and a half Stars out of 5 stars