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The new film, "Y Tu Mamá También" -- which translates as "And Your Mama, Too" -- is a coming of age story about two teenage boys on a cross country trip with an older woman that involves discoveries -- of self, others and sexuality. The movie is being hailed as another example of Mexico's new burgeoning filmmaking talent along with other recent films like "Amores Perros."

Director Alfonso Cuaron, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Carlos, was online Wednesday, May 1 at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss the movie.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Harrisburg, Pa.: Are you surprised that your movie has been so successful in the United States? Did you intend for movie with a cross-cultural appeal, or is this a pleasant surprise that you are reaching vast audiences?

Alfonso Cuaron: I'm extremely happy and blessed. From the beginning, we trusted that we were dealing with a story that has universal themes. This only shows that human beings are human first, and later given a passport.

Clifton, Va.: Alfonso -- are you from Mexico?

Alfonso Cuaron: Yes, I'm from Mexico City -- lived there for 30 years. Now I live in New York. First I lived in L.A. for a while, but now I live in New York.

Washington, D.C.: Your film is unrated in the U.S. because the MPAA thought it was too sexual to give it an R. What do you think are the major differences in the way sexuality is perceived in Mexico and the United States?

Can't wait to see the film!

Alfonso Cuaron: I think that sex and sexuality also is something very universal. The biggest difference would be the ones set by the gatekeepers of each society. This film was rated for over 12 in France, over 14 in Germany, over 13 in Spain, over 14 in Chile. Are the teenagers of those countries more evolved than American teenagers? I don't think so.

Arlington, Va.: What really struck me about the film was the lack of sentimentality -- it was funny and poignant, but not belaboring emotion. I never felt manipulated; I felt like I was watching a life.

Alfonso Cuaron: Our intention was to be as honest as possible, and to always keep an objective distance, allowing the characters to flow, and trying to observe rather than to comment.

Harrisburg, Pa.: How long did it take you to write your script? I presume there were many revisions. Or were there not many? What was the collaborative writing process between you and your brother? Did one of you have the initial idea?

Alfonso Cuaron: The initial idea was from Emmanuel Luveski, the director of photography, maybe 12 years ago, before we had done our first film. We were looking for a low-budget scenario, and he suggested two friends on a road trip to the beach. Carlos, my brother, and I, added the older woman, but didn't develop it any further until a couple of years ago. Carlos and I sat in my house garden in New York with an endless loop of "Watermelon and Easter Hay" by Frank Zappa, and we wrote the script in three weeks. The revisions were done during rehearsals and while we were looking for locations, adapting these things into current situations.

The collaboration is very easy, it's very telepathic. We don't need to be apologetic. We can say horrible things to each other without having to be offended. There's no diplomacy.

College Park, Md.: A Mexican friend of mine said that, while she appreciates the new wave of Hispanic directors and screenwriters, she is a little dismayed that the actors are almost exclusively white, light-eyed, or as she puts it "fresas." In Latin-American countries, whites are the minority, yet when it comes to the cinematic arts or television (shows, commercials, etc), they constitute the majority -- a reflection of the divide between white/European and brown/indigenous people.

Any thoughts on that? Are you willing to pro-actively use non-whites in central/lead roles, or are you hampered by the Mexican movie industry, societal indifference to non-whites, etc.?

Thanks.

Alfonso Cuaron: I did a film in which the main characters are middle- and upper-class. If I had done a film about the lower classes, the casting would have been different. I don't think the issue is a racial issue. The issue is a thematic issue. But it's true that Mexico, as a society, is fractured by class and race. Is there any country that is not?

Washington, D.C.: Did you have a difficult time finding teenage boy actors to be so, er, on display?

Alfonso Cuaron: The difficulty was to find the ones that would have the right chemistry. They knew each other since they were babies, and they lent their characters a lot of their inner emotions.

Washington, D.C.: The two boys in this film came off as very self-indulgent and selfish. They simultaneously display intolerance for their girlfriends' dalliances while both being unfaithful themselves.

However, Luisa, who is the catalyst for their sexual adventures comes off as completely selfless and giving.

Which of the three characters do you think grew and changed the most throughout the course of the film?

Alfonso Cuaron: Well, Luisa evolved, and she found her happiness. In a way, her ending is a happy ending. The two boys, they grew up, but their ending is a sad ending. This is a movie about identity. When you're in a journey searching for identity, you might find things about yourself that you don't like. And you have two choices. One is to embrace those things. But in most cases what we do is put masks on top of those things. The sad ending of the two boys is that they end up wearing masks.

New York, N.Y.: Hello Alfonso--

I really enjoyed "Y Tu Mama Tambien." It was fantastic. The realism and rawness of your film and "Amores Perros" was very similar and reminded me of some of the literature I've read from that part of the world, too. Why do you think that sense of realism is so prevalent?

Thanks and looking forward to your future works.

Alfonso Cuaron: I think that audiences are tired of the excessive romanticism, and are more open and willing to be in touch with material that speaks of reality in a more immediate way . In Mexico, soap operas took over romanticization. But people started to feel the hypocrisy that this romanticization is hiding.

Washington, D.C.: Has there been a difference between American and Mexican audiences in the way your film has been received?

Alfonso Cuaron: I'm very happy that the film has been so well received worldwide. Some of the approach has changed from country to country. What is interesting is that American audiences have been more attracted to the social issues of the film that a lot of Mexican audiences take for granted. Maybe because it's a reality that they have at close hand.

Chicago, Ill.: Hello -- I loved the movie, but I was a bit taken aback with all the nudity. Because Catholicism has a much stronger presence in Mexico than in the U.S., did your film receive any flak from the Catholic Church?

Oh, one more thing, I really loved how the movie showed the class differences in Mexico City.

Alfonso Cuaron: I'm sorry it took you aback. It's kind of difficult to do sex scenes with people fully clothed. Mexico is a Catholic country. But its society is an evolved society. Of course, there were a lot of criticisms from the church. In the last few years, the church in Mexico has been trying to gain political power. But I think it's been clear in Mexico that society was very happy with that separation of church and state.

Washington, D.C.: You've directed some pretty heavy hitters in the past -- Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow in "Great Expectations." Was "Y Tu Mama Tambien" a departure for you? And were you concerned about directing a small foreign language film after the box office success of some of your previous films?

Alfonso Cuaron: This film was an evolution of what I did before. I was in a search for a style that was finding dead ends, and I needed to go back to my roots. By this I mean creative roots, not cultural roots. I was not afraid of leaving the Hollywood system, because I believe that you have to do what you feel is right and hope for the best. The irony is that the little Mexican movie has put me in the best position I have ever been in Hollywood before.

Buffalo, N.Y.: How were you able to get such natural and uninhibted performances from your actors in scenes which I imagine were quite awkward to film?

Alfonso Cuaron: We didn't deal with the sex scenes differently than we dealt with the supermarket scene. All we were focusing on was the search for the honesty of the moment. And I also was lucky to work with extremely god and courageous actors.

Maryland: How did you come up with the idea for the script... autobiographical?

Alfonso Cuaron: It was autobiographical in an emotional sense rather than in an anecdotal sense. But Carlos and I, we use a lot of references to things that we know. Once we went to a wedding of high classes in the exact same location, with the president being present being more important than the bride and the groom. The nanny in the film is our real-life nanny.

Arlington, Va.: Your movie made a very clear delineation between a relatively small, very privileged class and the rest of Mexico -- which still lives in almost the last century. Was this purposeful?

Alfonso Cuaron: Yes. This film is a film about identity -- two teenagers searching for their identity as adults. A woman searching for her identity as a liberated woman. An observation of a country which in my opinion is a teenage country, searching for its identity as an adult country. I don't think Mexico will come to terms with its own identity until it accepts and deals with its social class differences. But I must say that the class problem does not exist only in Mexico. I believe that the class problem exists in the United States also.

washingtonpost.com: What is your next project?

Alfonso Cuaron: I've been working on a film for Universal, called "The Children of Men." It's a science-fiction story. It takes place 25 years from now in a world in which for 18 years, for unknown reasons, no human child has been born. Hopefully we'll be shooting it in the fall.

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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