There's a lot going on at this party and it's all a welcome gift

The film has taken its time to get to an Australian cinema release. You may struggle to remember that it sat on a number of international film critics' lists of 10 Best Films of 2023 from its run in festivals last year, where it picked up gongs including the Ecumenical Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

A handful of the big festivals hand out an ecumenical prize, which rewards spiritual, human and ethical values expressed in film, and Totem is all of those things.

In a big, multi-generational home in the suburbs of Mexico City, seven-year-old Sol (Naima Senties) is helping out with chores in between playing games and fighting with her cousin, Ester (Saori Gurza).

The whole house is occupied with preparations for a big party, cooking traditional dishes, shopping, and cleaning the house and Sol is helping out where she can.

The party is for Sol's dad, Tonatiuh (Mateo Garcia), a successful painter about to celebrate his birthday. But dad has stage-four cancer and the whole house is full of sorrow and excitement in equal parts, awaiting the birthday celebrations and wondering how their gifts are going to go down, but knowing that this is going to be a final birthday.

Sol doesn't quite understand though, wondering to her mother, Lucia (Iazua Larios), why her papa, alone in his room, doesn't want to spend more time with her.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen Aunt Nuria (Monserrat Maranon) has gotten an early start on the evening's drinking as she gives the children tasks to keep them out of the way, and eldest aunt Alejandra (Marisol Gase) is following around the white witch she has hired to cleanse the house of evil spirits.

The aunts are quietly spelling out their conversations, words like m-o-r-p-h-i-n-e, and we understand that Tonatiuh has stopped his treatment.

Ester and Sol are listening in but Sol still has to talk to her toys and ask them questions like "Is the world going to end?" and "Will my dad survive?"

Watching all of the loud family interactions, and with a particular eye on the woman who charges Alejandra a fortune in cash for her witchy services, is Cruz (Teresita Sanchez).

She's the patient nurse who is popping in and out of Tonatiuh's room to give him a bath or to massage his back to keep away the bed sores. The family are two weeks behind in her salary.

Aviles has her cinematographer Diego Tenorio walk the camera slowly among all of this drama. Conversations happen organically and, as would happen in a home full of family, occur over the top of each other, and so much like a Robert Altman film, you the viewer dip in and out of whichever conversation you train your ear to follow.

As the party begins and Tonatiuh emerges from his bedroom and joins in, we come to understand the film's title, as friends and family present gifts and discuss their meanings. The totem might be the bonsai tree grandfather (Alberto Amador) presents as being full of the love he cannot express for his dying son. It might be the stories rich with Mesoamerican culture his friends tell. It might be the house and the decades of emotion it has absorbed.

Aviles slowly builds a very powerful film, inviting us inside this home and allowing us to quietly care for her subjects while allowing us to come to our own conclusions about the spiritual or ethical motivations of each.

The film is produced by Salma Hayek, and the performances are uniformly superb, notably the two child performers.