Synopsis
 Undisputed benchmark of Mexican cinema of migration, Lessons for Zafirah records the faces and gestures that congregate around the train ‘The Beast’. The film\'s images are shared with the director\'s three-year-old daughter - called Zafirah - as a tale about the era in which we live.

 Program Note
 Illegal immigrants endlessly cross the border between Mexico and the U.S. With the American police trying to stop the immigrants by even using military force and with the heavy surveillance by the Mexican government that tries to stop this path of migration, thousands of illegal Latin Americans from all over the Central and South America still risk their lives to cross Mexico. The constantly running train they ride on is a symbol of continuous migration. Lessons for Zafirah visualizes Mexico as a gateway of migration from South America to North America. In this film, the most impressive scene is of those strong women, who provide assistance to the migrants on the railway with the train nearing them. Women from a small community in Mexico form an organization called “La Patrona,” and participate in the feminine aesthetics of the time and the economics of sharing. In the times of exploitative capitalism and negligence, these women change the paradigm of life through giving, and the director shows this value of life to her three-year-old daughter, Zafirah. (HONG So-in)