(and, in some places, is still the case today), the Gunsmith’s Daughter has no autonomy with regard to marriage – she is subject to the choice of her father. Just as she has no ownership of her future, she has no ownership of the story of her death, either. It is only the future (male) generations of her own family that work to respectfully restore that ownership to her. That this is facilitated by Margolese – a white American – might seem like an exercise in white saviourdom but, coming at the end of a movie featuring racism perpetrated by white Americans, from the perspective of Mexican people, his work to utilise his own resources to restore the heritage of a Mexican family can also be seen as allyship.

In many ways, the appropriation and restoration of the Gunsmith’s Daughte...

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