Mexican “I Have to Die Every Night” is a portrait of the 80s

“I Have to Die Every Night” (I Have to Die All Nights, Mexico, 2024) The adaptation of the book “I Have to Die All Nights: A Chronicle of the Eighties, the Underground and Gay Culture”, in which Mexican journalist Guillermo Osorno wrote an essay about the countercultural movement in Mexico City in the eighties, through real characters who were common in places like El Nueve, an emblematic gay bar in the Zona Rosa, arrives in Brazil as an episodic attraction.

The series is created and directed by Ernesto Contreras, from “A Dream in Another Language”, and tells the story of Guillermo (José Antonio Toledano), a young student who moves to Mexico City to study journalism at the University, discovering the nightlife around the bars of Zona Rosa, and living his first relationships at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

Among the series’ protagonists is Spanish actor Brays Efe, from “Paquita Salas” (read more here) and “Maricón Perdido”, which plays one of the owners of El Nueve, along with his lover Carlo (Humberto Busto).

The nightclub is the stage where much of the glam scene of the time meets. But the show aims to be not only a reflection of the LGBT+ community in Mexico, but above all a description of alternative music and the environments that face discrimination by the authorities, with a soundtrack full of iconic songs of the time, both in English and Spanish.

For Guillermo, who is the brother of a police officer, accepting his sexual identity becomes a kind of liberation from secrets and lies. He begins a relationship with DJ Blas (David Montalvo). But the most interesting thing is the recreation of people who are either still alive or existed at that time.

The series shows us a scenario that is rarely portrayed and narrates a period in history that Mexico seems to prefer to forget. The persecution of homosexuals by the police. The health crisis caused by AIDS that the government preferred to ignore, while queer people fought back with their activism.

Silvia Navarro, who is a goddess of Mexican soap operas, gives a great and welcoming performance as the lesbian Gloria and her tumultuous romance with the singer Aida (Cristina Roldo). José Antonio Toledano, who had already shown great determination in “This is not Berlin”, stars with great confidence.

Amidst their personal experiences, the characters experience the affronts of a society and a judicial system that are deeply repressive towards sexual freedom.