OMAR AND CEDRIC: IF THIS EVER GETS WEIRD

Nicolas Jack Davies | Germany | 2023 | 127’ | OV

»If this ever gets weird, promise me we can just stop, because nothing is more important than loving you«. These were the words of Omar Rodríguez-López to his childhood friend Cedric Bixler-Zavala in January 2000, on the eve of the recording of a groundbreaking album that would change the lives of more than just these two forever: »Relationship of Command«, which gave their then post-hardcore band At the Drive-In their breakthrough.

For a decade, even after their second successful band project »The Mars Volta« achieved even greater success, they stuck to this pact – until it was spectacularly broken in a fatal mix of deceit, Scientology, death and betrayal. The friends then spent the following ten years trying to heal the wounds.

The film tells the story of the artistic and personal relationship between Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (»At the Drive-In« and »The Mars Volta«). It is also the story of two immigrant outsiders (with parents from Mexico and Puerto Rico respectively) and their desire to create their own place in the world.

The documentary consists almost exclusively of hundreds of hours of footage shot by Omar Rodríguez-López himself over the last 40 years and relentlessly explores the major themes not only of the pop circus: success, addiction, death, grief, tragedy, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption.