Poética contra política: cuestionando el poder performativo de la ficción en Desierto de Jonás Cuarón

This essay examines the performative power of fiction in J. Cuarón's film Desierto (2015). It seeks to determine if the esthetics of this film make the audience aware of the dangers provoked by the reemergence of the nationalist, racist and supremacist rhetoric during Donald Trump's presidential campaign. This article questions whether or not the artistic choices made by the director merely reinforce immigrant and white American supremacist archetypes. Analyzing the concept of engagement in literature, we extrapolate it into the cinematographic field in order to understand the reasons why esthetic choices are contrary – or even counterproductive – to the original purpose of a supposedly politically engaged film that aimed to fight against the reduction of the Other.