Writer-director Issa López's story of a young girl seeking hope in horror calls to mind "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Devil's Backbone"

It never resolves its commingling of the fanciful and the mundane into a particularly compelling argument about the legacy of trauma.

Issa Lopez has such a strong command of mood, character and performances – especially impressive given the age of her cast – that her world quickly, seductively overwhelms

A waking nightmare full of striking images, Mexican director Issa López’s study of the orphans of cartel violence is uneven yet inspired.

Youths whose childhoods were robbed from them are the focus of two of the year's best films, both from Spanish-speaking creators who evoke real-world violence in their depictions of orphans struggling to survive amid violence, abandonment, and desperation. Tigers Are...

Mexican film is a combination of social realism and magical realism.

Issa López's thriller "Tigers Are Not Afraid" filters a Mexican gangland saga through the prism of a child's fairy tale.

Mexican director Issa Lopez mixes fantasy and gritty drug-war reality in 'Tigers Are Not Afraid,' a ghost story championed by Guillermo del Toro.

Unsentimental resilience makes storytelling both a weapon and a shield for the orphaned children in Issa López’s blend of horror and magical realism

Tigers Are Not Afraid may be imperfect, but you can feel the passion and creativity of its filmmaker in every decision. She’s fearless.