As we approach 2010, historians like to point to two crucial dates of Mexico's history: 1810, when Mexico waged its war of Independence from Spain, and 1910, when the Mexican Revolution erupted, leading to the overthrow of a thirty-year dictatorship. As if frozen in time, we hear the same political cry from nearly a century ago, “Sufragio Efectivo” Universal Suffrage – not only the right to vote, but for that vote to be counted. In 1910, the Revolutionaries sought to redistribute land and wealth. Today the minimum wage is approximately 4.50 USD per day, while, according to Forbes, Mexico has the honor of sporting some of the world's wealthiest people. Do the social injustices that were fought against in the Mexican Revolution still prevail? Today, Mexico is at a crossroads that

begs us to examine both the road we’ve left behind and the fork at which we stand.Through the legacy that filmmaker Natalia Almada inherited as the great-granddaughter of Mexican president Plutarco Elias Calles (1924-1928), one of Mexico’s most controversial revolutionary figures accused of having been a dictator, “Iron Man” and “Nun-Burner”, yet also acclaimed for having been the “father of modern Mexico,” El General is a portrait of a family and a country under the shadow of the past. Using original audio recordings by Calles’ daughter, Almada grapples with her great-grandfather’s controversial legacy. Almada’s film is a lyrical play between past and present, between family memory and official history resulting in a rich portrait of Mexico then and now.