Drone of the flies

  • Mauricio de la Torre
    Director
  • Mauricio de la Torre
    Writer
  • Mauricio de la Torre
    Producer
  • Miguel Ángel Aldrete Navarro
    Producer
  • Diego Esparza Amaral
    Producer
  • Fernanda Díaz
    Producer
  • Guillermo Ramírez
    Producer
  • Israel González
    Producer
  • Guillermo Ramírez
    Key Cast
    "Cecilio"
  • Israel González
    Key Cast
    "Maximino"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    El sonido de las moscas
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Western, Drama
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 25, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    70,000 MXN
  • Country of Origin:
    Mexico
  • Country of Filming:
    Mexico
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1,85:1
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • ENCIENDE: Festival Internacional de Cine de Occidente
    Tepatitlán de Morelos
    Mexico
    October 24, 2025
    Premiere
    Official Selection
  • ENCIENDE: Festival Internacional de Cine de Occidente
    Montevideo
    Uruguay
    October 28, 2025
    South American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • ENCIENDE: Festival Internacional de Cine de Occidente
    Gijón
    Spain
    December 6, 2025
    European Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Films That Move
    Kingston
    Jamaica
    February 6, 2026
    Honorable Mention
Director Biography - Mauricio de la Torre

Mauricio de la Torre is a Mexican historian, writer, and film director whose work shifts between cinema, literature, and visual arts. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Guadalajara, where his research focused on Mexican film history — a foundation that informs his cinematic language and narrative sensibility.

As cofounder of Espíritu Films, de la Torre has developed a narrative style that plays with structure, perspective, and authorship. His films frequently blurs the limits between fiction and commentary, combining existential inquiry with social critique. Through acidic humor and aesthetic sensitivity, he constructs stories that are both irreverent and introspective.
His directing credits include the short films Pornógrafo (2024), Quevedo para el desayuno (2025), and El sonido de las moscas (2025). He previously wrote Arte Errante (2018) a tribute to surrealist painter Martín Ramírez.
Beyond cinema, he has been recognized for his work in literature, receiving the Best Short Story Award for the Arreola López Velarde Tournament (2018). His multidisciplinary practice shapes a body of work that is formally playful, philosophically engaged and sharply observant.

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Director Statement

EN: The tone of El sonido de las moscas (Drone of the Flies) is defined by the existential condition of its protagonist. The environment is not merely a backdrop, but a mirror of Cecilio: the light of a fierce sun beating down on his head, burning him and weighing as heavily as the terror of death, the thirst for revenge, and the doubt that besieges him.

We seek a wild, harsh, and abandoned space that plunges us into a rural sordidness of which Maximino, the man accompanying him, is the faithful reflection; a being as preoccupied with killing as he is with eating, as bloodthirsty as the parched earth of the Altos de Jalisco. His presence ruptures the solemnity of Cecilio’s reflection with a vision just as profound, yet simple, voracious, and amoral, exposing the brutality and absurdity of existence.

Through a linear narrative, the film aims for the spectator to experience the dilation of time and the characters' waiting. This progression is fractured by an oneiric flashback: the nightmare of death symbolized in the body of the father. This visual effort distorts the aesthetic of "reality" to delve into a tormented psyche. The sound design, dominated by the omnipresent buzzing of flies, functions as a metronome of moral decay, culminating in a montage that revisits the initial presentation under the leitmotif of revenge in L’inverno I. Allegro non molto.

The intention is for the viewer to journey through Cecilio’s process, inhabit his waiting, and share his desire to avoid death—both his own and that of others—to finally confront, alongside the characters, its absolute inevitability. As a director, the goal is the exploration of a human geography, using local and historical elements—its men, its silence, and its abandonment—as a language to address a universal conflict: the individual's anguish in the face of death.

ES: El tono de El sonido de las moscas está definido por la condición existencial de su protagonista. El ambiente no es un escenario, sino un espejo de Cecilio: la luz de un sol bravo que cae sobre su cabeza, quemándolo y pesándole tanto como el terror a la muerte, el deseo de venganza y la duda que lo asedian.

Buscamos un espacio agreste, duro y abandonado que nos sumerja en una sordidez campesina de la que Maximino, el hombre que lo acompaña, es el fiel reflejo; un ser tan preocupado por asesinar como por comer, sediento de sangre como la tierra seca de los Altos de Jalisco. Su presencia rompe la solemnidad de la reflexión de Cecilio con una visión igual de profunda, pero simple, voraz y amoral, que deja al descubierto la brutalidad y el absurdo de la existencia.

A través de una narrativa lineal, busca que el espectador experimente la dilatación del tiempo y la espera de los personajes. Esta progresión se ve fracturada por un flashback onírico: la pesadilla de la muerte simbolizada en el cuerpo del padre. Este esfuerzo visual deforma la estética de la "realidad" para profundizar en una psique atormentada. El diseño sonoro, dominado por el zumbido omnipresente de las moscas, funciona como un metrónomo de la putrefacción moral, culminando en un montaje que retoma la presentación inicial bajo el leitmotiv de la venganza en L'inverno I. Allegro non molto.

La intención es que el espectador recorra el proceso de Cecilio, habite su espera y comparta su deseo de evitar la muerte —propia y ajena— para, finalmente, enfrentarse junto a los personajes a su absoluta inevitabilidad. Como director, busca la exploración de una geografía humana, utilizando elementos locales e históricos —sus hombres, su silencio y su abandono— como un lenguaje para abordar un conflicto universal: la angustia del individuo ante la muerte.