Netflix Considering Theatrical Run For Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma

It’s been five years since Alfonso Cuarón graced the big screen with his skillful directorial eye and though his next film was originally only set for release through Netflix, the streaming service is now giving consideration to releasing Roma on the big screens, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This move comes from the business people at Netflix looking to lure in more A-list directors to make films for the service while also keeping the current directors they have happy, including Paul Greengrass (Jason Bourne), who wants to see his upcoming drama 22 July see a more expanded theatrical release past the awards season minimum.

The major speed bump in releasing Roma for a theatrical run is the service’s day-and-date debut business platform, which the outlet says Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos wants to stick to instead of expanding on their already limited-runs in theaters. THR notes that Netflix has not made a decision in either direction on whether to extend theatrical releases past two weeks or what will end up happening with the film.

Roma chronicles a turbulent year in the lives of a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City. Cuarón, inspired by the women from his childhood, delivers an artful ode to the matriarchy that shaped his world.

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A vivid portrayal of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil, the film follows a young domestic worker Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) from Mixteco heritage descent and her co-worker Adela (Nancy García), also Mixteca, who work for a small family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma.  Mother of four, Sofia (Marina de Tavira), copes with the extended absence of her husband, Cleo faces her own devastating news that threatens to distract her from caring for Sofia’s children, whom she loves as her own. While trying to construct a new sense of love and solidarity in a context of a social hierarchy where class and race are perversely intertwined, Cleo and Sofia quietly wrestle with changes infiltrating the family home in a country facing confrontation between a government-backed militia and student demonstrators.

Filmed in luminous black and white, Roma is an intimate, gut-wrenching and ultimately life-affirming portrait of the ways, small and large, one family maintains its balance in a time of personal, social and political strife.

Roma will premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will arrive on Netflix in December. The feature is produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant Media.