General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Arráncame la Vida

Arráncame la Vida (Spanish for "Tear My Life Apart", released in English as Tear This Heart Out) is a 2008 Mexican period drama directed by Roberto Sneider, adapted from Ángeles Mastretta's 1985 novel of the same name.¹⁸ It follows Catalina Guzmán, a teenage girl in 1930s Puebla who marries the general and politician Andrés Ascencio, twenty years her senior, and gradually awakens to his violence, infidelities, and corruption while seeking a life of her own.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director and writers	Roberto Sneider directed, from a screenplay by Sneider with Ángeles Mastretta, based on her 1985 novel¹
Lead cast	Ana Claudia Talancón (Catalina Guzmán), Daniel Giménez Cacho (Andrés Ascencio), José María de Tavira (Carlos Vives)³
Setting	Puebla and Mexico City, late 1920s to early 1940s, post-revolutionary Mexico⁴
Budget	6.5 million US dollars (another source gives about five million euros), described as the most expensive film in Mexican cinema to that point⁵
Release	12 September 2008 in Mexico on 500 copies; about 2.3 million spectators and 75 million pesos at the box office¹
Awards	Mexico's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars; five Ariel awards in 2008⁵
Audience ratings	IMDb 7.4/10 from about 3,200 votes; Rotten Tomatoes 79% from a single critic review⁶^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot and characters

Catalina is a beautiful 15-year-old of the middle class in the Puebla of 1930 when she meets Andrés Ascencio, a young, powerful, and charming general twenty years older, in whom she sees a door to the world. Weeks after the wedding the marriage becomes a nightmare: Andrés is spoken of in connection with love affairs and murders, Catalina bears two of his children and raises those he had with other women, and Andrés ceases to be "Andrés" to become "mi General". Catalina, passionate and spirited, rejects her servile position and falls in love again, with the orchestra director Carlos Vives.¹^•³

The story is told through Catalina's eyes, in first-person narration from the present, and unfolds in a world of politics, corruption, adultery, murder, and love, examining the relations of power between men and women in a machista Puebla of 1930.⁸^•² The supporting cast includes Joaquín Cosío as Juan, Camila Sodi as Lili, Irene Azuela as Bárbara, Fernando Becerril as don Marcos, and Carmen Beato as doña Elena.⁵

Historical setting and inspiration

The film reconstructs the family and political atmosphere of Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s, when the country moved from rule by regional strongmen toward a strong centralized state through the maximato (1928 to 1934) and the Cárdenas years (1934 to 1940).⁹ Andrés Ascencio is a fictional character who never existed in Mexican history, but he is believed to be inspired by General Maximino Ávila Camacho, brother of the former president Manuel Ávila Camacho, an arrogant figure known for his violent character.⁸^•¹⁰

The film also incorporates real figures from the novel, which was translated into 11 languages. The singer Toña la Negra, who died almost 30 years before the film was made, appears in a scene in which the musician Vives plays piano while she sings; she is portrayed by the singer Eugenia León.¹¹

Production

The film was produced by Altavista Films in co-production with La Banda Films, Fidecine, and Oberón Cinematográfica (Spain), with support from the Government of the State of Puebla, and was funded with the fiscal incentive EFICINE Production under Article 226 of the Federal Income Tax Law.¹^•¹² Javier Aguirresarobe was the cinematographer, Salvador Parra the production designer, and Aleshka Ferrero the editor; the music is by Arturo Márquez, Leonardo Heiblum, and Jacobo Lieberman.¹^•⁵

Sources differ on the budget: the study guide by Carmen Herrero and Ana Valbuena gives 6.5 million US dollars and calls it the most expensive film in the history of Mexican cinema,⁵ while Google Play's description gives an approximate cost of five million euros and likewise calls it the country's most expensive film up to that moment.¹⁰ The production year is listed as 2007 by Estudios Churubusco, with the release in September 2008.¹

Reception

Commercially the film was a success: it earned about 2.3 million spectators and 75 million pesos, making it the seventh most-attended Mexican film at the time.¹^•⁵ The Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences chose it to represent Mexico at the 2009 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.⁵

At the 2008 Ariel awards of the Mexican film academy it won five prizes, including best director for Roberto Sneider, best actor for Daniel Giménez Cacho, best actress for Ana Claudia Talancón, and best screenplay for Sneider and Mastretta.⁵ A later account credits the film with wins at the 51st Ariel ceremony for adapted narrative, art design, makeup, and wardrobe.¹³

Critical response was mixed. Nuria Vidal of Fotogramas wrote that the film follows the line of the great melodramas that gave fame and splendor to Mexican cinema in the 1940s, though it lacks some of the magic that made that cinema unforgettable, and that Talancón's performance is fundamental, credible both as an ingenuous adolescent and as a cold, manipulative woman.¹⁴ Fernanda Solórzano of Letras Libres judged that Sneider meets and exceeds the demands of the period melodrama, making lost times and spaces believable while keeping the genre's center on the characters' emotional struggle.¹⁵ César Albarrán Torres of CinePremiere found the combination of political and amorous conflicts uneven, and the Argentine daily Clarín called it a didactic melodrama with dramatic lulls, praising Giménez Cacho as the best thing in the film.¹⁴^•¹⁶ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 79% from one critic review, with an audience rating of 3.9 out of 5 from more than 1,000 ratings; IMDb users give it 7.4/10.⁷^•⁶

Later circulation

The film has remained in circulation long after its release. It appeared on Netflix in 2024, where Argentine coverage described it as a trending drama.¹³ For the Día del Cine Mexicano, Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Relations distributed the film to other countries through its network of embassies, consulates, and cultural institutes, with Talancón participating as a cultural ally of the program and Alebrije Producciones granting the exhibition rights.¹⁷ A Spanish-language study guide for learners at levels B2 to C1 uses the film to teach about the social and historical situation of Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s, family and gender relations, and literary adaptation.⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2006 to 2009

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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