Using digital video and a skeleton crew, master filmmaker Arturo Ripstein boldly reworks the ancient Greek drama Medea, employing a dizzying array of flashbacks and Brechtian devices. The film focuses on Julia (Arcelia Ramirez) who works as an homeopathic doctor. Lovelorn and embittered, she learns that her husband, a failed boxer named Nicolas, has dumped her in favor of a younger woman, Raquel (Francesca Guillen), the daughter of local slumlord La Marrana (Ernesto Yanez). To make matters worse, Nicolas wants to take the kids, while at the same time La Marrana evicts Julia from her modest abode. Julia's growing thirst for vengeance is furthered by her godmother who believes that all men should be castrated. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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Arturo Ripstein, one of Mexico s most outstanding filmmakers, updated the Greek tragedy Medea for this award-winning tale about women who suffer in a man s world.

Poor and uneducated, Julia lives in a seedy barrio in Mexico City where she practices homeopathic medicine and performs abortions to support her family. When her husband abandons her for another woman, Julia's world crumbles. She is thrown out of her apartment by her landlord soon to be her husband's new father-in-law and her children are about to be taken away from her. With the help of her godmother, she plans to take revenge on her low-life, opportunistic husband.

Shot mostly hand-held on DV, SUCH IS LIFE is a timeless tale crafted in an innovative, contemporary style.