Tigers Are Not Afriad, Dark Fairy Tales, and the Mexican Drug Wars

Slay Away

E.L. King discusses the Spanish language film Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017), written and directed by Issa López with Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critics Kate Sánchez, Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? and Jessica Scott, a Content Editor at Film Cred. We explore the film's themes, including its fairy tale representation of childhood innocence and death. The film is a dark fairy tale about a gang of five children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug wars in Mexico. López draws on the real-life consequences of the drug wars in Mexico for her dark fairy tale about orphaned children left behind in the aftermath of violence.