Arturo Menéndez Transforms Grief Into Box Office Gold

How does a deeply personal tragedy become the soul of a box office phenomenon? This week, visionary Salvadoran director Arturo Menéndez sits down with Zay Zay to unpack the incredible journey behind La Balada de Hortensia—a groundbreaking comedy-drama that’s breaking records and expectations.

In this episode, Arturo reveals how grief, transformation, and years of creative evolution culminated in a film that’s making waves across Latin America and now, the U.S. From directing tone to building characters, and balancing comedy with deep emotional themes, this is a conversation every film lover, creative, and Latino storyteller needs to hear.

- How he lost 120 pounds while filming
- Why laughter can be a response to trauma
- What it takes to represent El Salvador on the global stage
- How the death of his mother shaped the movie’s soul
- And why La Balada de Hortensia is more than a movie—it’s a movement.

Run time: 19:38
Hosted by: Zay Zay
Special Guest: Arturo Menéndez, Director of La Balada de Hortensia

Transcript

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Forbes calls you one of the biggest creatives in all of Latin America. How has this movie changed you? Wow, that's a great question. ¿Qué pasa, y como estamos mi gente? I am Zay Zay, and welcome to When Zay Zay Met. Today, we're meeting with a visionary director whose bold storytelling has truly redefined Salvadoran cinema. And his latest film, La Balada de Hortensia, has broken records, guys. And it's challenged norms and has truly, truly made history. And now, it's making its way to the U.S. And today, he's here with us. Ladies and gentlemen, show your love. This is Arturo Menendez. Hello. Hello, Zay. How are you doing? What a pleasure being here with you. Oh, man. Good to see you, hermano. Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Gracias, gracias. Gracias para todo tu público. Definitely. Gracias a ti. Gracias a ti. This movie has really taken El Salvador by storm, right? Like, it has exploded onto the scene. Was it, like, truly that big, that quick, or was it like a gradual sort of build-up to an explosion? Like, or did it just knock you off your socks? Zay, this was incredible. How, since the beginning, since we started the project. Yeah. Everything was, like, working out, like butter, like warm butter on bread, because everything was really smooth. You know, movies always have trouble. Movies always have, you know, this... Siempre hay problemas en las películas. Okay. Y esta película was really easygoing since the beginning. Since, you know, in one year, we had the script and we were in pre-production. We had everything ready. We had the finance ready. And I said, wow, you know, I had one movie that took me 14 years to see it on the screen. And this one was in two years. I saw it on the screen since the beginning, since we wrote it. Wow. And so, you know, and when it went, the first weekend here on the cinemas, it was, you know, it was crazy. Everybody, there was large... You know, we broke the box office on the first day. You know, it was incredible. You know, and what's incredible is that we made that just with 12 screens over here. You know, because here, the movies, the movie theaters are really limited. We don't have that much, you know, movie screens. Okay. So... So, yeah, you know, it was incredible how much we did on the, you know, globally, just because it became the most successful in the box office movie. So, yeah, you know, everything's been really smooth with it. It works out with the people, because I think la historia es muy universal. I mean, it's a very universal story that anybody can see it, you know, and I think it's not only Salvadoran, it's Latin American, even though Tenchis, the character, it's one of our most iconic characters we have over here. Incredibly beloved, yep. Yes, yes, yes. So, everything with him. Definitivamente. You took a wild concept, right? I mean, honestly, you even said it yourself, you took actually a very beautiful concept, the concept of redemption, right? An overarching concept of redemption. You put it in a vehicle of a beloved character, but essentially placed it inside a different wild concept. A hedonistic man wakes up in the body of a woman, but it's a body swap comedy, and then you turned it into a whole journey. What was the seed of that idea? Where did Hortencia sort of come from for you? You know, I had that idea for many years, because, you know, I knew Julio Yudice, the actor, many years ago, like 15 years ago, and, you know, since I met him, I had this idea on my mind, like, you know, I should, we should do a movie about Tenchis, but, you know, the time was not, well, it was not yet, you know, and so I had the idea in my mind for many years, and I went through a lot of things, you know, I made my movies, my first movies, I had like three of them, and suddenly we were producing one movie over here called Fireflies on Mosote, with Elias Aksumi, the producer. He told me, like, listen, let's go have lunch with Julio Yudice, with the actor, and let's see if there is a chance to make a movie with him. Thank you. And I say, you know what? I have an idea for a movie of Tenchis. You know, I've been working on it in my mind. So he said, okay, let's pitch it on the lunch. And I pitched it to him and to Elias, the producer, and they loved it. For some reason, the seed of the idea was long, like many years before the production of the movie. But in the time I did it, I was going through a, let me say, a transformation. You know, I went through... I went through a personal transformation just at the moment I was starting to make this movie. A lot of things had happened in my life. My mother died in the process. And I even finished this movie with my mother's grief. And in the end, this movie, which is a movie that we made commercial, in quotes, was meant to entertain, it was a movie for the public, to make a box office hit, it became something personal, something that has my heart. And I think that's the most important thing, because in the end, I see myself a little... I feel like there's something about me in that story, because I also went through that transformation. And people didn't recognize me when I went through this, and a lot of things, right? So the seed of this, although it comes from the past, from many years ago, at the time it arrived and was made possible, I was going through that process. And a process of transformation, of evolution. I lost 120 pounds because I had a lot of weight. I went through a depression, a lot of things in my life, right? And after that, and it ends with my mother's death, right? And then, yes, I see my heart in that movie, and that's why I love it so much. And I think it shows, and I think that's what the audience can see. Wow, what a story. And that transformation, so personal, and you took all of that, all of that change, you had some of that pain also sprinkled within that transformation. But then you put it in a comedy. What was that all about? It's really interesting how... It's really interesting how a concept can become a comedy. But, you know, I worked this movie as a drama, and, but... And I let the situations happen naturally with the actor. We worked them out. And so at the end, we had a really interesting thing because yes, it's a comedy, but what you're looking at, it's drama. And we laugh at it. And that's something, it's something that characterizes us as Salvadorans, or as Latinos, that we're dying. One of our legs broke and we're able to laugh at that. We have that ability, don't we? So I think that's what happened. It could have been a very dense drama, because yes, the film could have been that, or a very, very popular comedy, a comedy that was too much like a television sketch. It could have been both. But we had to find a middle ground in this film. And I think that's what we found, and that's why it's part of the success of this film. That's it. You know, one thing that I saw and I was thinking about while watching the film is in thinking about you and how to direct it, because you just brought something up, tone, right? Tone is very important to balance the transformations, to balance the drama and the comedy. You're seeing something that can be incredibly dramatic, can be incredibly traumatic to somebody, and yet finding the humor in it, directing tone. How do you do that as a director? How do you find that balance? You know, I think it's part of the director's job because finding the tone in a story that you're telling in front of the camera is complicated. It's one of the most complicated things, and it's where the films fail, because you can't find the right tone for a story. And you have to be very clear about it. Like I said, I built the film and I visualized it as a drama, but I knew that the character was going to give me the tone that I needed. So it's a mixture of a very strong story with the humor of the character. So the two mix, and that gives us the tone at the end. Obviously, also with the other actors, not only with Julio, but also with Francisco Gattorno, it also helped me a lot to find the right tone for the story. That's it. So you were able to sort of rely on the expertise that Julio has to be able to pull out the comedy whenever you needed it, and also to direct him to be as dramatic as you needed him to be. Perfect. Beautiful, beautiful work. That's right. Look, I think Charlie Chaplin, I don't know if I remember correctly, he said that comedy is the story told without laughter. Something like that. And it's true, because it's difficult. Look, there's nothing more difficult than comedy and horror in the cinema, because if it goes wrong, it becomes ridiculous. So you have to find the exact point for that. And I think this film has that, because it doesn't become a caricature, it doesn't become a comic, because there's a difference between comedy and comic, but it's in a very thin line, because the character of Tenchis tends to go towards comicity, towards the sketch. So finding that, I think, is also part of the script and the screenwriter, because even though the story is mine, we co-wrote the script with Javier Reina, a Mexican writer who lives in the United States. He also helped in that process. So I think it's a team effort as well. This is obviously not only your biggest movie so far, and of course the biggest movie El Salvador has seen. Forbes calls you one of the biggest or the best creatives in all of Latin America. How has this movie changed you? Wow, that's a great question. Because, you know, I come from making movies with a low budget, with a medium budget. This movie is the biggest I've ever made. I come from making movies for film festivals. I liked to take the path of movies from festivals, to be able to participate, to win awards. And then we focused on distribution. We focused on distribution from the beginning. Y esto me ha cambiado la manera de ver las películas, de hacer las películas. Porque lo veo desde el punto de vista industrial, me doy cuenta de cómo funciona todo, y digo, wow, o sea, es grandioso, o sea, a mí me cambia la perspectiva de cómo abordar los proyectos. Y creo que las demás películas que voy a hacer, me gustaría abordarlas desde este punto, desde la distribución, pensando en el público también, no solamente en los festivales, no solamente en los críticos, sino más bien, veamos a ver que el público cómo la acepta. Y me gusta eso que es masivo, que las películas al final son para el público, para el gran público. Y creo que cambia mi perspectiva de hacer las películas, este proyecto. Eso. Arturo, man, continued success. I appreciate it. They're wrapping me up. 30 seconds. Why do I need to see this movie? Sell me this movie. Why does everybody need to go see La Balada de Hortensia? Todo el público tiene que ir a ver La Balada de Hortensia, porque es la primera vez que vemos El Salvador en la gran pantalla, en Estados Unidos, en más de 150 cines. Vemos el paisaje salvadoreño, nos identificamos con Latinoamérica también, porque esta es una historia universal, esta es una historia de transformación, es una historia que también aborda el tema de la violencia de género, de la mujer maltratada, de la mujer luchadora, y al final es un acto de redención. Eso. Y es una película que no solamente la puede ver los salvadoreños, los centroamericanos, sino que la puede ver cualquier persona de cualquier nacionalidad, porque es una historia muy universal. El personaje de la Tenchis es el vehículo que introduce la historia y pues por donde nos lleva a contar esta drama comedia. There it is. Bonus 30, y'all. Arturo, we appreciate you so much. Thank you for joining us, man. Continued success. Go see La Balada de Hortensia right now. What are you doing here? Go. Run, watch it. Arturo, thank you. Thank you, Sai. A pleasure.