Arturo Ripstein is the most renowed and one of the most original Mexican directors, born and raised in cinema (his father was a producer), even becoming Buñuel's assistant. His work maintains deep ties with the tradition of classical Mexican cinema and, within this, with his most specific genre: melodrama. Ripstein transforms it into films that fuse beauty and raw viscerality, compassion and violence, with a melancholy that touches all "sinners”, no matter how dark their truth. LEFFEST pays tribute to him with a program featuring Deep Crimson and five other films never commercially released in Portugal. The director will be present at the festival with his wife and collaborator, screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego.