“Death is temporary. Love is eternal.” Mexico has an admirable relationship with death and Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), a joyful reunion for families with deceased relatives, is one of its most important festival days. Wieden+Kennedy Mexico has brought Mexican beer brand, Cerveza Victoria, into the festivities with a tribute to the traditional belief that loved ones who have passed take the form of hummingbirds to visit those they’ve left behind.

The campaign film, Love is Eternal, features 2,352 frames, 130 hummingbird movements, 4,013 handmade flowers and Mexican singer-songwriter, Juan Gabriel, in its story that weaves live-action footage with stop-motion imagery. The film was directed by Brazilian trio, The Youth, (Eduardo Lubiazi, João Machado, and Yuri Maranhão), with artist duo, YUCA, who directed last year’s Cerveza Victoria Day of the Dead film, overseeing the stop-motion and animation process. The film took 125 hours of stop-motion work across four months to create, with more than 90 seconds of animation blended with live-action. The decision to make a hybrid film was based on the emotionality of the story, which required a human touch. 

The film tells the story of Carmen, who journeys through Mictlán, the Aztec underworld, before returning as a hummingbird to visit her husband, Javier, during the opening of the taqueria they had always dreamed of building together, but that she never lived to see. This intimate reunion gradually unfolds into many other reunion stories that unites Javier with audiences in having someone they wish they could see again.

The film achieved nearly 50 million views in its first ten days. It follows last year’s 2D, fully handcrafted animated film, A ti, ¿quién te espera? (Who’s waiting for you?), that told of the reunion of a shopkeeper, Jorge, with his loyal dog, Rogelio. That film was bult from 2,500 hand-drawn frames and was directed by YUCA.