{ "id": "ep9fscxbtq", "slug": "la-jaula-de-oro", "title": "La Jaula de Oro", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "label": "Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "La jaula de oro (The Golden Cage), 2013 film by Diego Quemada-Díez, a Mexico-Spain drama about Guatemalan teenage migrants riding La Bestia freight trains to the US; Cannes Un Certain Talent winner, distinct from Ruben Alves' comedy La Cage Dorée.", "snippet": "La jaula de oro (The Golden Cage), 2013 film by Diego Quemada-Díez, a Mexico-Spain drama about Guatemalan teenage migrants riding La Bestia freight trains to the US; Cannes Un Certain Talent winner, distinct from Ruben Alves' comedy La Cage Dorée.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "markdown": "# La Jaula de Oro\n\n**La jaula de oro** (The Golden Cage) is a 2013 drama film directed by the Spanish filmmaker Diego Quemada-Díez, a Mexico-Spain co-production that follows three Guatemalan teenagers riding freight trains through Mexico toward the United States[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/la-jaula-de-oro/) • [2](https://kinolorber.com/film/lajauladeoro). It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where its cast received the Prix Un Certain Talent[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/la-jaula-de-oro/) • [3](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/el-elenco-de-la-jaula-de-oro-premiado-en-un-certain-regard). The title should not be confused with *La Cage Dorée* (La jaula dorada), Ruben Alves' 2013 comedy about a Portuguese couple in Paris, which was distributed in Spain by Surtsey Films[4](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?pelicula=91714&q=true).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director | Diego Quemada-Díez, Spanish-born, formerly an assistant to Ken Loach; his first feature film[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2013/un-certain-regard-rendez-vous-la-jaula-de-oro-by-diego-quemada-diez/) |\n| Production | Mexico-Spain co-production, 2013, 110 minutes[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/la-jaula-de-oro/) |\n| Cast | Brandon López (Juan), Rodolfo Domínguez (Chauk), Karen Martínez (Sara), Carlos Chajón (Samuel)[2](https://kinolorber.com/film/lajauladeoro) • [6](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/la-gabbia-dorata/) |\n| Basis | Built from more than 600 migrant testimonies collected over roughly eight years of research[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes) • [8](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/) |\n| Cannes 2013 | Un Certain Regard selection; Prix Un Certain Talent for the ensemble; François Chalais Award special mention[3](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/el-elenco-de-la-jaula-de-oro-premiado-en-un-certain-regard) • [9](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt2042583/awards/) |\n| Other honors | Gillo Pontecorvo Award; Silver Ariels for original screenplay, cinematography, editing, and score; Goya nomination for Best Ibero-American Film[8](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/) • [9](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt2042583/awards/) |\n| Spanish release | 5 December 2013, distributed by Golem[10](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/238229/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nJuan, Sara, and Samuel, three 15-year-olds from the slums of [Guatemala](https://www.edgepedia.org/guatemala), leave home hoping to reach the United States. Crossing Mexico, they meet Chauk, an undocumented Tzotzil indigenous man from the Chiapas highlands who does not speak Spanish, and the four travel together on top of freight trains and along the railroad tracks[2](https://kinolorber.com/film/lajauladeoro) • [5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2013/un-certain-regard-rendez-vous-la-jaula-de-oro-by-diego-quemada-diez/). The train the migrants ride is known as La Bestia (The Beast), a fast but dangerous form of transport across Mexico; along the way the teenagers encounter criminal gangs and narcotraffickers who use extortion and the threat of kidnapping to recruit migrants as drug mules[8](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/).\n\nThe opening scene shows Sara, hoping to protect herself on the journey, cutting her hair, binding her chest, and disguising herself as a boy before leaving her home in a Guatemalan slum[8](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/). The border itself appears only near the end of the film; most of the running time follows the teenagers northward with the railway line as the spine of the journey[11](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-220802/).\n\n## Making of the film\n\n**Origins.** Quemada-Díez began the project in 2003, after reading an article by the journalist Sam Quiñones about a red-light district in Mazatlán. He flew there, lived for two months in a house beside the railroad tracks, and every day watched convoys of train cars packed with migrants arrive and tell stories of robbery and death on the road[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2013/un-certain-regard-rendez-vous-la-jaula-de-oro-by-diego-quemada-diez/) • [12](https://golem.es/lajauladeoro/director.php). He then spent years collecting migrant testimonies; the film's narrative concentrates several hundred of these accounts, along with his own experiences, in the figures of Juan and Chauk[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes) • [12](https://golem.es/lajauladeoro/director.php). He described the intended result as \"a mixture between documentary and fiction, that started from reality and gave voice to real people\"[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes).\n\n**Method.** The whole crew made the journey the migrants make, choosing locations along the real route from Guatemala to the United States and filming in continuity on Super 16, a lighter format close to classic documentary[12](https://golem.es/lajauladeoro/director.php). The film was shot in locations in Guatemala, the United States, and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Morelos, Estado de México, Jalisco, Michoacán, Sonora, and [Baja California](https://www.edgepedia.org/baja-california), and took more than two years to complete[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes). The actors are non-professionals cast in Guatemala and Mexico, who received a workshop to help them face deep feelings; the children never read the script, and each day the director read them only a small piece of the scene ahead, applying methods he had learned as an assistant to [Ken Loach](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-loach)[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes) • [12](https://golem.es/lajauladeoro/director.php).\n\n**Financing.** The film cost approximately 23 million pesos, benefited from the fiscal incentive under Article 226 of the Federal Income Tax Law (EFICINE Producción), and received support from the Ibermedia program[7](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes) • [13](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=12320). Producers included Inna Payán, Luis Salinas, Edher Campos, and Gerardo Herrero[14](https://tornasolmedia.com/portfolio/la-jaula-de-oro/).\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt Cannes 2013 the film competed in Un Certain Regard, a section of 17 films from 15 countries, and the jury gave its Prix Un Certain Talent to the cast in recognition of their exceptional work[3](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/el-elenco-de-la-jaula-de-oro-premiado-en-un-certain-regard). It also received a special mention from the François Chalais Award jury, cited for the strength of its visual aspect and the emotional intensity of the story[9](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt2042583/awards/). Americas Quarterly counts 57 awards for the film in total, including the Gillo Pontecorvo Award at Cannes[8](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/).\n\nIn Mexico the film won Silver Ariel awards in 2014 for Best Original Screenplay (Quemada-Díez, Gibrán Portela, Lucía Carreras), Best Cinematography (María Secco), Best Editing (Paloma López Carrillo), and Best Score (Leonardo Heiblum)[9](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt2042583/awards/). It was nominated for the Goya Award for Best Ibero-American Film[15](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/la-jaula-de-oro/).\n\n**Commercial reach.** In France the film was released on 56 prints, which the Mexican Secretariat of Culture described as the highest number for a Mexican film since [Alejandro González Iñárritu](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu)'s *[Amores perros](https://www.edgepedia.org/amores-perros)*[16](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/logra-gran-exito-en-francia-del-filme-mexicano-espanol-la-jaula-de-oro). It opened in Norway in October 2013, Italy in November 2013, France and Spain in December 2013, and the Netherlands in April 2014[10](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/238229/).\n\n## Critical interpretation\n\nCritics have read the film as social realism with a documentary tone. Reviewers praised its restraint: Cinemanía's Manuel Piñón gave it 10 out of 10, calling it the best film by a Spanish director of 2013 and noting an uncompromising commitment to reality with an adventure-film rhythm[17](https://www.cine.com/us/pelicula/la-jaula-de-oro/criticas_prensa). Scholars have focused on its sparse dialogue and what one analysis calls an \"aesthetics of lack\": the young migrants are introduced through inaudible gestures and a mise-en-scène of poverty rather than exposition, rendering migration as a silent initiation[18](https://escholarship.org/content/qt730058vn/qt730058vn_noSplash_604a03396a79673b21b3b00b693625b3.pdf). The title itself draws on a popular metaphor, the \"golden cage\" of immigrating to the United States as a Latin American[19](https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/carrera_laura.pdf).\n\nThe film is also studied within a Mexican migration-cinema tradition: a 2023 comparative study placed it alongside [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel)-era *Espaldas mojadas* (Galindo, 1953) and *Maldita miseria* (Aldama, 1981) to ask how filmic representations of Latin American migration match the phenomenon that produced them[20](https://revistas.innovacionumh.es/index.php/JCCI/en/article/view/2019).\n\n## References\n\n1. [LA JAULA DE ORO, Festival de Cannes official film page](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/la-jaula-de-oro/)\n2. [La Jaula de Oro, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/lajauladeoro)\n3. [The cast of La jaula de oro winners of Un Certain Talent, Morelia Film Festival](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/el-elenco-de-la-jaula-de-oro-premiado-en-un-certain-regard)\n4. [JAULA DORADA, LA, Catálogo ICAA](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?pelicula=91714&q=true)\n5. [UN CERTAIN REGARD RENDEZ-VOUS – La Jaula de Oro by Diego Quemada Diez, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2013/un-certain-regard-rendez-vous-la-jaula-de-oro-by-diego-quemada-diez/)\n6. [LA GABBIA DORATA, Commissione Nazionale Valutazione Film](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/la-gabbia-dorata/)\n7. [El filme La jaula de oro buscará triunfar como un poema épico en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Cannes, Secretaría de Cultura](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/el-filme-la-jaula-de-oro-buscara-triunfar-como-un-poema-epico-en-el-festival-internacional-de-cine-de-cannes)\n8. [La Jaula de Oro, Americas Quarterly (Rebecca Bintrim, 2014)](https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/la-jaula-de-oro/)\n9. [La jaula de oro (2013) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/es/title/tt2042583/awards/)\n10. [La jaula de oro, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/238229/)\n11. [La jaula de oro – Película 2013, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-220802/)\n12. [Entrevista con Diego Quemada-Díez, Golem Distribución](https://golem.es/lajauladeoro/director.php)\n13. [La jaula de oro, Sistema de Información Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=12320)\n14. [La jaula de oro, Tornasol Media](https://tornasolmedia.com/portfolio/la-jaula-de-oro/)\n15. [La jaula de oro, Premios Goya](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/la-jaula-de-oro/)\n16. [Logra gran éxito en Francia del filme mexicano-español La jaula de oro, Secretaría de Cultura](https://www.gob.mx/cultura/prensa/logra-gran-exito-en-francia-del-filme-mexicano-espanol-la-jaula-de-oro)\n17. [Críticas de la prensa de LA JAULA DE ORO, Cine.com](https://www.cine.com/us/pelicula/la-jaula-de-oro/criticas_prensa)\n18. [The Migration Genre in La Jaula de Oro: Voids and Virtues (University of California eScholarship)](https://escholarship.org/content/qt730058vn/qt730058vn_noSplash_604a03396a79673b21b3b00b693625b3.pdf)\n19. [Migratory Aesthetics in La Jaula de Oro (Laura Carrera, CEU eTheses)](https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/carrera_laura.pdf)\n20. [Representaciones de la migración latinoamericana en el Cine Mexicano, Journal of Cultural and Creative Industries](https://revistas.innovacionumh.es/index.php/JCCI/en/article/view/2019)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"La Jaula de Oro\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[La Jaula de Oro](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"La Jaula de Oro\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/la-jaula-de-oro. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "La jaula de oro, 2013 film by Diego Quemada-Díez, a Mexico-Spain drama about Guatemalan teenage migrants riding La Bestia freight trains to the US; Cannes Un Certain Talent winner, distinct from Ruben Alves' comedy La Cage Dorée." }