Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Awarded four Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant, Alejandro González Iñárritu is at the top of the Hollywood food chain. So what does he do? Make the most personal - and divisive - film of his career: Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths. Total Film meets the Mexican rule-breaker who wants to change the boundaries of cinema.

- By James Mottram

'In every film that I have done, the mistakes are mine. I always tokk the last decisions.'

On the first floor of the Corinthia Hotel, it’s the third day of the London Film Festival and there are already harassed-looking PRs and journalists marching down the corridor. Then one man saunters around the corner, dressed casually in a navy donkey jacket and ragged grey trousers, with patches of red material across the knees. Alejandro González Iñárritu is 25 minutes late for our encounter. Not because he’s tardy but simply because he likes to talk… and talk, and talk.

The Mexican director is back with his new film, and he’s got a lot to say. Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, to trot out its full title, is epic in scale, but deeply personal in nature. After winning four Oscars across his previous two films – his miraculous one-shot movie Birdman and gruelling trapper saga The Revenant – it’s the sort of ballsy movie you might expect from a risk-taker like Iñárritu.

The story follows Mexican documentarian and journalist Silverio (Zama’s Daniel Giménez Cacho), a married father-of-two about to be feted with a major award in America when he undergoes a major existential crisis. Is this a self-portrait? Certainly, much like his character, Iñárritu has straddled both Los Angeles and Mexico City these past two decades, after his Bafta-winning debut Amores Perros (2000) put him on the map.