How Shopping for a Crib Turns Violent in Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Personal emotions intersect with national ones in “Roma,” the Mexican writer-director Alfonso Cuarón’s interpretation of his 1970s childhood. In this scene, the pregnant protagonist, Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), goes to a furniture store to shop for a crib. On her way, she passes a student demonstration on the Mexico City streets and, while she’s in the store, a paramilitary group attacks the demonstrators, an episode based on the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre when students were killed at a protest. Narrating t