Heidi Ewing has done an excellent job of portraying the real-life story of a gay couple in the film I Carry You With Me. The presentation of the real-life couple in the film, besides the actors, has made the overall presentation of the movie unique. The film is a docu-drama, presenting the real-life characters alongside skilled actors like Christian Vasquez and Armando Espitia. The film highlights societal perils like homophobia and racism and, hence, helps raise awareness among its audiences. The plot revolves around Ivan’s American dream of becoming a renowned chef someday. He illegally comes to America, and his lover follows him, but his memories back in his homeland keep gnawing at his heart. Will Ivan never be able to go back to Mexico? Let’s find out!
Spoiler Alert
How Did Ivan Fulfill His American Dream?
The lack of opportunities back in Mexico triggered Ivan to try...
Spoiler Alert
How Did Ivan Fulfill His American Dream?
The lack of opportunities back in Mexico triggered Ivan to try...
- 12/20/2023
- by Debjyoti Dey
- Film Fugitives
Mexico’s Bruno Santamaría, Argentina’s Martín Benchimol and Turkey’s Selman Nacar proved three of the big winners among San Sebastian Industry Awards, announced Wednesday.
João Paulo Miranda, already a young star on Brazil’s film scene after “Memory House,” meanwhile won the Ikusmira Berriak Award.
A Chicago Golden Hugo winner for doc feature “Things We Dare Not Do,” Santamaría swept two awards at the fest’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, a Mecca for Latin America auteurs and their producers seeking vital co-production partners as state funding prospects have plunged across the region.
Also written by Santamaría, its heavily autobiographical story, set in the ’90s, follows 10-year-old boy Bru, whose father is diagnosed with HIV, sparking his parents break up.“I want to film the glances and conversations that my parents had in silence and which I couldn’t observe as a child and find some sense [in what happened],” Santamaría told Variety.
João Paulo Miranda, already a young star on Brazil’s film scene after “Memory House,” meanwhile won the Ikusmira Berriak Award.
A Chicago Golden Hugo winner for doc feature “Things We Dare Not Do,” Santamaría swept two awards at the fest’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, a Mecca for Latin America auteurs and their producers seeking vital co-production partners as state funding prospects have plunged across the region.
Also written by Santamaría, its heavily autobiographical story, set in the ’90s, follows 10-year-old boy Bru, whose father is diagnosed with HIV, sparking his parents break up.“I want to film the glances and conversations that my parents had in silence and which I couldn’t observe as a child and find some sense [in what happened],” Santamaría told Variety.
- 9/21/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
‘Heli’s’ Armando Espitia Set for ‘Six Months,’ from Chicago Fest Winner Bruno Santamaría (Exclusive)
Armando Espitia, who broke out as the hapless young factory worker in Amat Escalante’s Cannes winner “Heli,” is attached to star in “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” a feature project being brought to San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum by Mexico’s Bruno Santamaría Raso.
Also on board is actor – and writer-producer – Sofia Espinosa, who fulfilled all three roles in Max Zunino’s “Los Bañistas” and “Bruma” and won a Mexican Academy Ariel for her tearaway performance as Gloria Trevi in “Gloria.”
Written and to be directed by Santamaría, “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” marks his first fiction feature. He caught attention and won a Chicago Golden Hugo Golden Hugo and Golde Q Hugo for best documentary for “Things We Dare Not Do,” a movie straddling fiction in its finish, production values and narrative structures as it depicts Toño, the eldest son...
Also on board is actor – and writer-producer – Sofia Espinosa, who fulfilled all three roles in Max Zunino’s “Los Bañistas” and “Bruma” and won a Mexican Academy Ariel for her tearaway performance as Gloria Trevi in “Gloria.”
Written and to be directed by Santamaría, “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” marks his first fiction feature. He caught attention and won a Chicago Golden Hugo Golden Hugo and Golde Q Hugo for best documentary for “Things We Dare Not Do,” a movie straddling fiction in its finish, production values and narrative structures as it depicts Toño, the eldest son...
- 9/19/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)
Following his early days of being an assistant for Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi’s career soon blossomed, leading to a few collaborations between the two monumental figures of Iranian cinemas––one of which, Crimson Gold, is now available on The Criterion Channel. The masterful 2003 character study, scripted by Kiarostami after he told the tenets of the story to Panahi while sitting in traffic, stars unprofessional actor Hossain Emadeddin in his sole performance. Following a pizza delivery driver who witnesses the sharp class divide and political terror playing out in his society, Kiarostami and Panahi brilliantly preview the brutal ending from the start as the pieces then cogently and subtly fall into place as to why a man would...
Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi)
Following his early days of being an assistant for Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi’s career soon blossomed, leading to a few collaborations between the two monumental figures of Iranian cinemas––one of which, Crimson Gold, is now available on The Criterion Channel. The masterful 2003 character study, scripted by Kiarostami after he told the tenets of the story to Panahi while sitting in traffic, stars unprofessional actor Hossain Emadeddin in his sole performance. Following a pizza delivery driver who witnesses the sharp class divide and political terror playing out in his society, Kiarostami and Panahi brilliantly preview the brutal ending from the start as the pieces then cogently and subtly fall into place as to why a man would...
- 9/24/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Heidi Ewing’s first narrative film uses elements of documentary in the true story of a relationship between Mexican immigrants in the US
Revolving around a tender true love story, this first narrative feature from seasoned documentary director Heidi Ewing (which won a couple of awards at Sundance) is a fascinating – though at times uneven – blend of film styles. Alternating between fictional re-enactments and real-life vignettes, it is a hybrid drama that charts the relationship between Ivan and Gerardo, two undocumented Mexican immigrants living in the US.
The evocative rumbles of the New York subway train act as an enigmatic conduit to Ivan’s youth in the Mexican city of Puebla. Bearing a striking resemblance to the real-life character, Armando Espitia portrays the young Ivan with a raffish charm. Struggling with a dead-end job and unable to provide for his son from a previous relationship, Ivan finds solace in his...
Revolving around a tender true love story, this first narrative feature from seasoned documentary director Heidi Ewing (which won a couple of awards at Sundance) is a fascinating – though at times uneven – blend of film styles. Alternating between fictional re-enactments and real-life vignettes, it is a hybrid drama that charts the relationship between Ivan and Gerardo, two undocumented Mexican immigrants living in the US.
The evocative rumbles of the New York subway train act as an enigmatic conduit to Ivan’s youth in the Mexican city of Puebla. Bearing a striking resemblance to the real-life character, Armando Espitia portrays the young Ivan with a raffish charm. Struggling with a dead-end job and unable to provide for his son from a previous relationship, Ivan finds solace in his...
- 9/14/2021
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Summer of Soul (Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will report a three-day cum of $650K in 752 theaters in North America for a per screen average of $865, distributor Searchlight said of the Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson doc about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
The film, with an A+ CinemaScore, performed best in art houses and specialty theaters with top performing locations including the El Capitan in Hollywood, the Landmark in West L.A., Midtown in Atlanta, Ritz 5 in Philadelphia, Angelika in New York, Jacob Burns in Pleasantville NY, Bam Rose in Brooklyn, Tampa Theatre, Sag Harbor Cinema, Hollywood Portland Or., Cinema 21 in Portland Or., Coolidge Corner in Boston, and both Nighthawk theatres in Brooklyn. Top mainstream locations: AMC Lincoln Square in NYC, the AMC Georgetown in DC, and the Empire 25 in Manhattan.
The distrib anticipates a dip in grosses today, the 4th, but a bounce on Monday in what is...
The film, with an A+ CinemaScore, performed best in art houses and specialty theaters with top performing locations including the El Capitan in Hollywood, the Landmark in West L.A., Midtown in Atlanta, Ritz 5 in Philadelphia, Angelika in New York, Jacob Burns in Pleasantville NY, Bam Rose in Brooklyn, Tampa Theatre, Sag Harbor Cinema, Hollywood Portland Or., Cinema 21 in Portland Or., Coolidge Corner in Boston, and both Nighthawk theatres in Brooklyn. Top mainstream locations: AMC Lincoln Square in NYC, the AMC Georgetown in DC, and the Empire 25 in Manhattan.
The distrib anticipates a dip in grosses today, the 4th, but a bounce on Monday in what is...
- 7/4/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Questlove’s Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will tease the specialty box office this weekend with the brilliantly reviewed Sundance Grand Jury and Audience award-winner in special engagements in two theaters to tee up a wide release on some 600 screens, and Hulu, July 2.
The film from Searchlight Pictures about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which features never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and others, will strike a chord at the El Capitan Theater in LA and the Magic Johnson AMC Harlem.
Footage from the festival in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) held the same year as Woodstock was stored in a basement and all but forgotten for 50 years before today and this film, which was directed by musician Ahmir Khalib Thompson, known as Questlove, drummer of...
The film from Searchlight Pictures about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which features never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and others, will strike a chord at the El Capitan Theater in LA and the Magic Johnson AMC Harlem.
Footage from the festival in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) held the same year as Woodstock was stored in a basement and all but forgotten for 50 years before today and this film, which was directed by musician Ahmir Khalib Thompson, known as Questlove, drummer of...
- 6/25/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
To Heidi Ewing, they were simply Iván and Gerardo, a longtime couple who owned restaurants in New York, liked to go dancing, were wonderful company to be around. They had met in Mexico in 1994. Iván had a son and aspirations to be a chef. Gerardo had grown up on a cattle ranch in Chiapas and worked as a teacher. He spotted Iván, closeted at the time, in a gay bar and attracted his attention with a laser pointer. They were very young then. Now they were married, and middle-aged, and settled down.
- 6/24/2021
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Sony Pictures Classics Updates Release Information for Summer Slate
Sony Pictures Classics has updated its summer release plans for “I Carry You With Me,” “12 Mighty Orphans” and “The Lost Leonardo.” All three films are set to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival both in person and virtually.
The world premiere of the art documentary “The Lost Leonardo” will screen at Tribeca on June 13 at The Battery. Set to open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the film will expand to other markets shortly after. “The Lost Leonardo” tells the story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. Produced by Andreas Dalsgaard for Copenhagen-based Elk Film and Christoph Jörg for Paris-based Pumpernickel Film, the documentary was directed by Andreas Koefoed. Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the film back in March.
“12 Mighty Orphans,” which stars Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw,...
Sony Pictures Classics has updated its summer release plans for “I Carry You With Me,” “12 Mighty Orphans” and “The Lost Leonardo.” All three films are set to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival both in person and virtually.
The world premiere of the art documentary “The Lost Leonardo” will screen at Tribeca on June 13 at The Battery. Set to open in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the film will expand to other markets shortly after. “The Lost Leonardo” tells the story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million. Produced by Andreas Dalsgaard for Copenhagen-based Elk Film and Christoph Jörg for Paris-based Pumpernickel Film, the documentary was directed by Andreas Koefoed. Sony Pictures acquired the rights to the film back in March.
“12 Mighty Orphans,” which stars Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw,...
- 5/11/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
It’s no secret that Latino artists are rarely nominated for mainstream accolades. Unless there’s a streaming behemoth supporting a famed director, like “Roma” back in 2018, Latin Americans and American Latinos are routinely shut out of the awards conversation.
Of course, that’s not because there’s a lack of worthy contenders. Among the many factors that keep the projects that do make it to screens in the United States from getting recognition, a crucial one is clear economic disparity in relation to titles with deep-pocketed distributors.
Most of these movies don’t have sizable budgets for marketing campaigns, which makes it difficult for them to get on the radar of awards pundits, the press in general, and, more importantly, Academy voters. Nevertheless, this season, once again, there are plenty of works by or about Latinos that Academy members can and should consider.
Some great documentaries — such as “Mucho Mucho Amor,...
Of course, that’s not because there’s a lack of worthy contenders. Among the many factors that keep the projects that do make it to screens in the United States from getting recognition, a crucial one is clear economic disparity in relation to titles with deep-pocketed distributors.
Most of these movies don’t have sizable budgets for marketing campaigns, which makes it difficult for them to get on the radar of awards pundits, the press in general, and, more importantly, Academy voters. Nevertheless, this season, once again, there are plenty of works by or about Latinos that Academy members can and should consider.
Some great documentaries — such as “Mucho Mucho Amor,...
- 3/4/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
The nominations for the 3rd Annual Latino Entertainment Journalists Association (Leja) Awards have been announced with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Nomadland” leading.
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by director George C. Wolfe, earned 10 nominations including best picture, best actor for Chadwick Boseman, best actress for Viola Davis, best supporting actor for Colman Domingo, best adapted screenplay for Ruben Santiago-Hudson, best ensemble casting, best production and set design, best costume design, best hair and makeup and best sound.
Chloé Zhao received the most individual nominations for directing, writing, producing and editing Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland,” the most for any woman in the history of Leja. Jayro Bustamante was nominated for best picture, director, original screenplay and international feature for “La Llorona.”
Netflix led the studio tally with a total of 42 nominations, and Amazon Studios nabbed an impressive 14 total.
“It’s been an extremely difficult year for our industry and our Latinx community,...
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by director George C. Wolfe, earned 10 nominations including best picture, best actor for Chadwick Boseman, best actress for Viola Davis, best supporting actor for Colman Domingo, best adapted screenplay for Ruben Santiago-Hudson, best ensemble casting, best production and set design, best costume design, best hair and makeup and best sound.
Chloé Zhao received the most individual nominations for directing, writing, producing and editing Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland,” the most for any woman in the history of Leja. Jayro Bustamante was nominated for best picture, director, original screenplay and international feature for “La Llorona.”
Netflix led the studio tally with a total of 42 nominations, and Amazon Studios nabbed an impressive 14 total.
“It’s been an extremely difficult year for our industry and our Latinx community,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
This awards season could showcase possibly one of the most diverse group of contenders ever. A record-breaking number of women are directing and writing films; Tara Miele among them with her cerebral drama “Wander Darkly,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Lionsgate is giving the film a strong awards push and will submit Diego Luna for awards consideration in the best supporting actor category. His co-star Sienna Miller will be submitted for best actress.
With a beautiful mixture of culture and genders in the awards conversation, Latinx performers are still underrepresented in the Academy’s acting categories. Luna’s submission is just one of six Latinx performances for the Academy to choose from in this extended eligibility year. The other actors, all currently considered long shots for recognition are Ariana DeBose (“The Prom”), Colman Domingo (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Al Madrigal (“The Way Back”), and Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez...
With a beautiful mixture of culture and genders in the awards conversation, Latinx performers are still underrepresented in the Academy’s acting categories. Luna’s submission is just one of six Latinx performances for the Academy to choose from in this extended eligibility year. The other actors, all currently considered long shots for recognition are Ariana DeBose (“The Prom”), Colman Domingo (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Al Madrigal (“The Way Back”), and Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez...
- 11/23/2020
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
They say truth is stranger than fiction, but more often than not it’s much sadder too. Where fiction likes to wrap things up in a tidy bow, real life is all about calculated compromise. In the case of Iván Garcia and Gerardo Zabaleta, whose touching love story is dramatized in the timely drama “I Carry You With Me,” the choice between a life together in the U.S. or with family in Mexico has no clear-cut answers. The narrative feature debut of Oscar-nominated documentarian Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp”),
“I Carry You With Me” operates on three separate timelines, often jumping between with little rhyme or reason. Ewing intercuts footage of the real Iván, now in early middle age and a successful chef in New York City, alongside the talented actor (Armando Espitia) dramatizing his life as a young man in Puebla, Mexico, with occasional flashes of his childhood self...
“I Carry You With Me” operates on three separate timelines, often jumping between with little rhyme or reason. Ewing intercuts footage of the real Iván, now in early middle age and a successful chef in New York City, alongside the talented actor (Armando Espitia) dramatizing his life as a young man in Puebla, Mexico, with occasional flashes of his childhood self...
- 10/8/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
The American Film Institute has unveiled its lineup of 124 films, adding notable titles including the documentaries “Belushi,” “Citizen Penn” and “Hopper/Welles” and the Albert and Allen Hughes thriller “Dead Presidents.”
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, had announced previously that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title on Oct. 15. The festival also announced last month that it would close Oct. 22 with “My Psychedelic Love Story,” and host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love,” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.”
“Belushi” is directed by R.J. Cutler and features interviews with John Belushi, Jim Belushi, Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd and Penny Marshall.
AFI Fest, which is going virtual this year without the usual glitzy Hollywood premieres at the Tcl Chinese Theatre, had announced previously that Rachel Brosnahan’s crime drama “I’m Your Woman” had been selected as its opening night title on Oct. 15. The festival also announced last month that it would close Oct. 22 with “My Psychedelic Love Story,” and host the world premieres of Kelly Oxford’s “Pink Skies Ahead” and Angel Kristi Williams’ “Really Love,” in addition to special presentations of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s “Fireball” and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy.”
“Belushi” is directed by R.J. Cutler and features interviews with John Belushi, Jim Belushi, Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd and Penny Marshall.
- 10/6/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The American Film Institute (AFI) has today announced the full lineup of this year’s AFI Fest, including the World Cinema, New Auteurs, and Documentary sections. These titles, including buzzy festival features like “I Carry You with Me,” “Shadow in the Cloud,” “Jumbo,” “Farewell Amor,” “Wander Darkly,” “Tragic Jungle,” “Sound of Metal,” “Wolfwalkers,” “New Order,” and “Hopper/Welles,” join previously announced films, including Julia Hart’s “I’m Your Woman,” which will open the festival, and Errol Morris’ “My Psychedelic Love Story,” which will close it.
This year’s complete AFI Fest program includes 124 titles of which 53 percent are directed by women, 39 percent are directed by Bipoc, and 17 percent are directed by Lbgtq+.
“AFI Fest is committed to supporting diverse perspectives and new voices in cinema and this year is no different,” said Sarah Harris, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals, in an official statement. “While we wish we were able to be together in Hollywood,...
This year’s complete AFI Fest program includes 124 titles of which 53 percent are directed by women, 39 percent are directed by Bipoc, and 17 percent are directed by Lbgtq+.
“AFI Fest is committed to supporting diverse perspectives and new voices in cinema and this year is no different,” said Sarah Harris, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals, in an official statement. “While we wish we were able to be together in Hollywood,...
- 10/6/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It’s always exciting when a filmmaker who is accomplished in one avenue takes a chance on a new venture, especially when that leap entails an unplanned switch from documentary to narrative. Prolific documentarian Heidi Ewing has long been known for her collaborations with Rachel Grady, including the Oscar-nominated 2006 film “Jesus Camp” and “One of Us,” a devastating portrait of ex-Hasidim which made waves when it premiered on Netflix in 2017. A master of non-fiction storytelling, it’s only fitting that Ewing would stumble into making her narrative debut while originally making a documentary.
Based on the true love story of two of Ewing’s friends, “I Carry You With Me” follows two men who fall in love as they navigate the dangerous move from Mexico to the U.S. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to warm reviews, where it was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.
Based on the true love story of two of Ewing’s friends, “I Carry You With Me” follows two men who fall in love as they navigate the dangerous move from Mexico to the U.S. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to warm reviews, where it was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.
- 10/2/2020
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
"I've been thinking about crossing over." Sony Pictures Classics has released the first official trailer for an acclaimed indie drama titled I Carry You With Me (or Te Llevo Conmigo in Spanish), which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Also playing at the New York Film Festival this fall, and is scheduled for release in early January. "Academy Award nominee Heidi Ewing's luminous, moving debut as a narrative filmmaker, follows a tender romance spanning decades. Starting in provincial Mexico and continuing as first Iván, then Gerardo, journey towards sharing a life together in New York City, I Carry You With Me is an intimate love story, as well as a soulful rumination on family, sacrifice, regret, and ultimately, hope." The film stars Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, and also features Michelle Rodríguez. Described as "a searing saga... in which love is the binding force.
- 10/2/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for “I Carry You With Me” (“Te Llevo Conmigo”) from Heidi Ewing.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the pic is one of Mexico’s major hopefuls for the best international feature race at this year’s Academy Awards. The film won the audience and innovator awards at the Park City, Utah, festival.
Written by Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga, the movie tells the story of young, aspiring chef Iván (played remarkably by Armando Espitia), who works at a restaurant and dreams of being able to cook while supporting the mother of his child. After meeting a teacher named Gerardo (Christian Vazquez), who is an out gay man, the two develop an instant connection. This love causes Iván to make the dangerous and perilous journey to cross the border to find a life that can help him achieve his culinary dreams,...
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the pic is one of Mexico’s major hopefuls for the best international feature race at this year’s Academy Awards. The film won the audience and innovator awards at the Park City, Utah, festival.
Written by Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga, the movie tells the story of young, aspiring chef Iván (played remarkably by Armando Espitia), who works at a restaurant and dreams of being able to cook while supporting the mother of his child. After meeting a teacher named Gerardo (Christian Vazquez), who is an out gay man, the two develop an instant connection. This love causes Iván to make the dangerous and perilous journey to cross the border to find a life that can help him achieve his culinary dreams,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The first trailer for Sundance Next Audience Award winner, “I Carry You With Me” teases a heartbreaking love story across borders and an innovative format.
Read More: ‘I Carry You With Me’: A Beautiful Gay Love Story Makes An Unfortunate Creative Turn [Sundance Review]
In the trailer for Heidi Ewing‘s film, Iván (Armando Espitia) and Gerardo (Christian Vazquez) fall in love after a chance meeting in Mexico in the mid-90s, but they quickly realize that a love story like theirs isn’t commonplace, and not accepted by everyone.
Continue reading ‘I Carry You With Me’ Trailer: Love Is Challenged By Prejudice And Borders In Docu-Drama at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘I Carry You With Me’: A Beautiful Gay Love Story Makes An Unfortunate Creative Turn [Sundance Review]
In the trailer for Heidi Ewing‘s film, Iván (Armando Espitia) and Gerardo (Christian Vazquez) fall in love after a chance meeting in Mexico in the mid-90s, but they quickly realize that a love story like theirs isn’t commonplace, and not accepted by everyone.
Continue reading ‘I Carry You With Me’ Trailer: Love Is Challenged By Prejudice And Borders In Docu-Drama at The Playlist.
- 10/2/2020
- by Rafael Motamayor
- The Playlist
It feels like a lifetime ago that I watched I Carry You With Me. It was a Sundance press screening in the middle of my busiest day at the festival, and frankly, if I had to change locations to see it between my other screenings, I would have skipped it. But as Iván says in the film, sometimes destiny holds life’s surprises for us.
After directing documentaries for the last two decades, Heidi Ewing makes her narrative debut with this graceful look into the real lives of Iván García (Armando Espitia) and Gerardo ZaVe (Christian Vasquez), one which earned her Sundance’s Next Audience Award and Innovator Award. It’s a fitting honor from the festival because the film was born in Park City over drinks in 2012. Iván and Gerardo joined Ewing at the festival to support her project Detropia. There the couple told Heidi the story of their childhood,...
After directing documentaries for the last two decades, Heidi Ewing makes her narrative debut with this graceful look into the real lives of Iván García (Armando Espitia) and Gerardo ZaVe (Christian Vasquez), one which earned her Sundance’s Next Audience Award and Innovator Award. It’s a fitting honor from the festival because the film was born in Park City over drinks in 2012. Iván and Gerardo joined Ewing at the festival to support her project Detropia. There the couple told Heidi the story of their childhood,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Joshua Encinias
- The Film Stage
“Dora and the Lost City of Gold” and “I Carry You With Me” are among this year’s Imagen Awards nominees, which span a range of new categories including best director in television, best music composition for film and television and best music supervision for film and television.
The Imagen Foundation president Helen Hernandez announced 114 nominees across 20 categories for the 35th annual Imagen Awards.
“This year’s list of nominees is a far cry from four honorees 35 years ago,” Hernandez said in a statement. “The level of creativity and talent in our community is bountiful and is exemplified in this year’s list. The judges were challenged with the overwhelming increase of quality submissions for consideration. It’s clear that we are making some strides, but have a way to go to achieve significant equity and inclusion in the industry. Until then, Imagen is committed to be the means to...
The Imagen Foundation president Helen Hernandez announced 114 nominees across 20 categories for the 35th annual Imagen Awards.
“This year’s list of nominees is a far cry from four honorees 35 years ago,” Hernandez said in a statement. “The level of creativity and talent in our community is bountiful and is exemplified in this year’s list. The judges were challenged with the overwhelming increase of quality submissions for consideration. It’s clear that we are making some strides, but have a way to go to achieve significant equity and inclusion in the industry. Until then, Imagen is committed to be the means to...
- 8/8/2020
- by Janet W. Lee
- Variety Film + TV
Nominees for the 35th annual Imagen Awards honoring positive portrayals of Latinos in the media were revealed Wednesday, with nominated films including Dora and the Lost City of Gold and I Carry You With Me and TV programs Mayans M.C., Pose and Law & Order: Svu on the roster.
See the entire list of nominees below.
The Imagen Awards will be presented virtually Thursday, September 24, at 5 p.m.
“This year’s list of nominees is a far cry from four honorees 35 years ago,” said Imagen Foundation president Helen Hernandez. “The level of creativity and talent in our community is bountiful and is exemplified in this year’s list. The judges were challenged with the overwhelming increase of quality submissions for consideration. It’s clear that we are making some strides, but have a way to go to achieve significant equity and inclusion in the industry. Until then, Imagen is...
See the entire list of nominees below.
The Imagen Awards will be presented virtually Thursday, September 24, at 5 p.m.
“This year’s list of nominees is a far cry from four honorees 35 years ago,” said Imagen Foundation president Helen Hernandez. “The level of creativity and talent in our community is bountiful and is exemplified in this year’s list. The judges were challenged with the overwhelming increase of quality submissions for consideration. It’s clear that we are making some strides, but have a way to go to achieve significant equity and inclusion in the industry. Until then, Imagen is...
- 8/5/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: UTA has signed Mexican actor Armando Espitia in all areas. Espitia most recently starred in Heidi Ewing’s drama I Carry You With Me, which premiered at Sundance and won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Award in the Next! categories.
Espitia first came to prominence with his leading role in Amat Escalante’s Cannes title Heli and also starred as the lead in Nuestras Madres which opened at Cannes in Critics’ Week where it picked up the Caméra d’Or.
Additionally, he has appeared in several features including Ayúdame A Pasar La Noche, and Open Cage. On the TV side, his credits include Amazon’s Diablo Guardián, Telemundo’s El Recluso as well as History Channel’s Texas Rising. He also founded the theater company Conejo Con Prisa.
He continues to be represented by Grandview.
Espitia first came to prominence with his leading role in Amat Escalante’s Cannes title Heli and also starred as the lead in Nuestras Madres which opened at Cannes in Critics’ Week where it picked up the Caméra d’Or.
Additionally, he has appeared in several features including Ayúdame A Pasar La Noche, and Open Cage. On the TV side, his credits include Amazon’s Diablo Guardián, Telemundo’s El Recluso as well as History Channel’s Texas Rising. He also founded the theater company Conejo Con Prisa.
He continues to be represented by Grandview.
- 2/21/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Winner of both prizes awarded in the Next category of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, “I Carry You With Me” tells the true story of an undocumented gay couple from Mexico who risk their lives for love, liberty and the American Dream. Making her first foray into narrative filmmaking, documentary helmer Heidi Ewing began the project as a vérité portrait of her real-life subjects, Ivan and Gerardo, but cast actors to play the two men in reenactments of their early life — both as children and later, at the moment they met and fell in love.
Lgbtq movies out of Mexico are rare, and the idea to combine two styles of filmmaking is unique, but Ewing’s approach needs more cohesiveness. The narrative scenes are shot in a way that makes it hard to stay committed throughout, and the actors don’t seem to be playing the same two people we’re...
Lgbtq movies out of Mexico are rare, and the idea to combine two styles of filmmaking is unique, but Ewing’s approach needs more cohesiveness. The narrative scenes are shot in a way that makes it hard to stay committed throughout, and the actors don’t seem to be playing the same two people we’re...
- 2/13/2020
- by Valerie Complex
- Variety Film + TV
Sony Pictures Classics and Sony’s Stage 6 Films have partnered up to acquire the global rights to Heidi Ewing’s feature narrative debut, “I Carry You With Me,” out of Sundance.
Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga co-wrote the film that premiered in the festival’s Next section. The film will be released later this year. “I Carry You With Me” is produced by Mynette Louie and Ewing, alongside co-producers Gabriela Maire, Edher Campos and Alexandra Vivas. Norman Lear, Brent Miller, Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman and Michael Heimler of Black Bear Pictures executive produced.
Production companies are Loki Films, The Population, and Zafiro Cinema. Armando Espitia, Christian Vasquez and Michelle Rodriguez star.
Also Read: Sony Pictures Classics Lands Dog Doc 'The Truffle Hunters'
“I Carry You With Me” is based on a true story of a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between an aspiring chef and a teacher. Societal pressure weighs on them,...
Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga co-wrote the film that premiered in the festival’s Next section. The film will be released later this year. “I Carry You With Me” is produced by Mynette Louie and Ewing, alongside co-producers Gabriela Maire, Edher Campos and Alexandra Vivas. Norman Lear, Brent Miller, Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman and Michael Heimler of Black Bear Pictures executive produced.
Production companies are Loki Films, The Population, and Zafiro Cinema. Armando Espitia, Christian Vasquez and Michelle Rodriguez star.
Also Read: Sony Pictures Classics Lands Dog Doc 'The Truffle Hunters'
“I Carry You With Me” is based on a true story of a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between an aspiring chef and a teacher. Societal pressure weighs on them,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Sony Pictures Classics has teamed with Sony’s Stage 6 Films to oversee the global release of Heidi Ewing’s feature narrative debut, “I Carry You With Me (Te Llevo Conmigo),” a gay love story about two men who immigrate to the United States. The deal follows the movie’s enthusiastic reception at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The romantic drama debuted to multiple standing ovations in Park City, where it was shown in the Next section. It will be released later this year.
Co-written by Ewing (“Jesus Camp”) and Alan Page Arriaga, the pic, based on a true story, follows the romance between two men, one an aspiring chef and the other a teacher. Together they make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
In a rave review, Entertainment Weekly wrote, “In Ewing’s hands and as anchored by two superb performances,...
Co-written by Ewing (“Jesus Camp”) and Alan Page Arriaga, the pic, based on a true story, follows the romance between two men, one an aspiring chef and the other a teacher. Together they make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
In a rave review, Entertainment Weekly wrote, “In Ewing’s hands and as anchored by two superb performances,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Theatrical release planned later this year.
Sony Pictures Classics (Spc) made its second on-site buy of Sundance, partnering with Stage 6 on documentarian Heidi Ewing’s narrative feature solo directorial debut I Carry You With Me.
The Next selection premiered on Sunday and charts a gay romance spanning decades that starts in Mexico between an aspiring chef and a teacher. Societal pressure forces the relationship into an unexpected place when one of them is forced to move to the Us.
Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga co-wrote the Us-Mexico drama, which stars Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, and Michelle Rodríguez and was produced by Mynette Louie and Ewing.
Sony Pictures Classics (Spc) made its second on-site buy of Sundance, partnering with Stage 6 on documentarian Heidi Ewing’s narrative feature solo directorial debut I Carry You With Me.
The Next selection premiered on Sunday and charts a gay romance spanning decades that starts in Mexico between an aspiring chef and a teacher. Societal pressure forces the relationship into an unexpected place when one of them is forced to move to the Us.
Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga co-wrote the Us-Mexico drama, which stars Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, and Michelle Rodríguez and was produced by Mynette Louie and Ewing.
- 1/28/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Sony Pictures Classic is partnering with Stage 6 Films for worldwide rights to the immigration love story I Carry You With Me, which is set to be released later this year.
Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between two young men, an aspiring chef and a teacher. Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels the couple to make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez and Michelle Rodríguez star in the pic.
I Carry ...
Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between two young men, an aspiring chef and a teacher. Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels the couple to make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez and Michelle Rodríguez star in the pic.
I Carry ...
- 1/28/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sony Pictures Classic is partnering with Stage 6 Films for worldwide rights to the immigration love story I Carry You With Me, which is set to be released later this year.
Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between two young men, an aspiring chef and a teacher. Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels the couple to make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez and Michelle Rodríguez star in the pic.
I Carry ...
Based on a true story, I Carry You With Me is a decades-spanning romance that begins in Mexico between two young men, an aspiring chef and a teacher. Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels the couple to make the treacherous journey to New York with dreams, hopes and memories in tow.
Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez and Michelle Rodríguez star in the pic.
I Carry ...
- 1/28/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Among the record 92 submissions this year, 27 titles are directed or co-directed by women. There are six documentaries in the mix, as well as two animated features. Moreover, for the first time, Ghana and Uzbekistan are each fielding an entry. However, Nigeria’s submission was disqualified by the Academy as being mostly in the English language. Here’s a guide to the films, including logline and sales or production contact.
Albania
“The Delegation”
Director: Bujar Alimani
Logline: In autumn 1990,
a political prisoner is secretly taken out of jail to meet the head of the European delegation investigating human-rights violations. But nothing goes according to plan.
Key Cast: Viktor Zhusti, Ndriçim Xhepa, Xhevdet Feri
Sales: Art Film
Algeria
“Papicha”
Director: Mounia Meddour
Logline: A female student rebels against the bans set by radicals during the civil war and plans a fashion show.
Key Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda
Sales:...
Albania
“The Delegation”
Director: Bujar Alimani
Logline: In autumn 1990,
a political prisoner is secretly taken out of jail to meet the head of the European delegation investigating human-rights violations. But nothing goes according to plan.
Key Cast: Viktor Zhusti, Ndriçim Xhepa, Xhevdet Feri
Sales: Art Film
Algeria
“Papicha”
Director: Mounia Meddour
Logline: A female student rebels against the bans set by radicals during the civil war and plans a fashion show.
Key Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda
Sales:...
- 11/6/2019
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 10/2/2019
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬0¦Emma Kiely, Nancy Epton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 10/1/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/30/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/27/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/11/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/5/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/3/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 9/2/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 8/30/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 8/29/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.
- 8/29/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.
Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2020 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track, and can include animated and documentary features.
- 8/29/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
A forensic anthropologist recovering the bones of people killed during Guatemala’s dark civil war believes he may have found his father’s remains in “Our Mothers,” a heartfelt though slight drama whose surprise Camera d’Or win at this year’s Cannes will significantly boost the film’s chances on the fest circuit. César Díaz’s debut may be one of the few fiction features to look at the horrors of the genocide perpetrated by the U.S.-backed military against the indigenous population, but his rudimentary screenplay is so overly didactic that the good intentions are diluted by the formulaic structure and writing. Notwithstanding a few genuinely affecting moments, “Our Mothers” never breaks free from being a standard social-issue movie mostly invested in preaching the cause.
Overworked Ernesto Gonzalez is a forensic anthropologist tasked with identifying the bones of people killed by the right-wing government in the 1980s.
Overworked Ernesto Gonzalez is a forensic anthropologist tasked with identifying the bones of people killed by the right-wing government in the 1980s.
- 5/30/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Some movies are designed to expose national problems by doing little more than illustrating their activist intentions. But two features opening stateside this week take more personal approaches. Mexican director Amat Escalante's unnerving "Heli" explores the underbelly of his country's drug war through its reverberations for an innocent young couple, whose cursory involvement with a cocaine deal leads to a series of murders and other morbid developments. With more effective results, Iran's Mohammad Rasoulof's suspenseful "Manuscripts Don't Burn" focuses on the plight of an older generation, by tracking the country's censorship department as it cracks down on a group of journalists planning to publish a report about a botched assassination attempt. Both "Heli" and "Manuscripts Don't Burn" contain scenes of brutal kidnappings and horrific torture, but only one of them manages to place the cruelty in context. While "Heli" contains believable turns by Armando Espitia as the 17-year-old.
- 6/12/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
There is a scene in Amat Escalante's Heli that encompasses with artistic subtlety the immense frustration and agony that afflicts Mexico today. As his protagonist takes murderous revenge on one of his sister's captors, the contrasting audio of a man preaching religious verses scores the scene. Just as violently liberating as such a sequence, the entire film speaks loudly of the terrible bloodshed - the product of the ongoing drug war. Focusing on the horrors that a single family has to undergo, Heli is a bold statement that confronts the subject fearlessly and avoids sentimentalism. Winner of the Best Director award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and chosen as Mexico's Official Submission to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar last year, Escalante's latest is a movie of its time that is interested in the human side of deplorable circumstances. The director spoke to us from Mexico City a few days before the Academy announced the shortlist in the category. The film will open in Los Angeles and New York on June 13th, 2014 from Outsider Pictures
Read the Review for 'Heli' Here
Carlos Aguilar: Your film is a powerful, and fearless statement about Mexico today. How did you develop the screenplay to encompass all its thematic elements?
Amat Escalante: I started writing the script about five years ago. I get my ideas through images, so the first image I had was of a young man looking for his father in the countryside. From that point on the story developed, and I wanted to do something around the General Motors plant in Guanajuato, which is close to where I live. I wanted to portray the environment that has surged in the 25 years the plant has been there, lots of families have moved here and small towns have been created around it. I wanted to create a story about one of these families.
That’s how I went about developing the story. There wasn’t really a lot of investigative research on the subject. I felt like I didn’t have to do a lot of research because everything that is in the movie are things that everyone knows about. What I did was construct a story to tell these things that happen but giving them a face, some characters, a family. To see how these issues affected this specific family. I was hopeful that through these characters I was going to tell a story that grabbed the audience’s attention.
Aguilar: Do you believe cinema can be a tool to create conscience about these issues?
Escalanate: Yes, I don’t know if it’s conscience or more of a catharsis. When one lives and sees the things that happen in Mexico, or you hear of what happens to other citizens, it is anguishing and you don’t really know what to do. I have the the possibility to make movies, and I try to put in them my preoccupation regarding what happens in the country. It is important to do this. It doesn’t mean all movies have to be that way, or talk about the reality or about what is happening, but I do feel there is a void. There is a lot of information on the drug war and about all the violence that comes with it. What’s missing is a more personal vision, a more profound vision about the people not only about the events, in which it seems that ghosts or monsters are the ones killing people, the ones who behead them or hang them.
I wanted to show the human side of these tragic events that have been happening. I consider it important. There are many movies of other kinds in Mexico and around the world, but about these events happening in Mexico I believe too little has been done artistically. There are always two other films that are mentioned on the subject Miss Bala and El Infierno, but for 8 years of intense war against the drug dealers I think it’s too few. I know it is a topic that leaks into other films but few have approached it in such a deep or interesting manner.
Aguilar: Much has been said about the violence depicted in the film. Why did you feel it was necessary to show it in that manner?
Escalante: If it weren’t for these things that are happening, all this violence, and the people perpetrating these acts, the problem wouldn’t be so serious. But the reason why this worries me so much is because of this level of violence, of dehumanization, of lack of values within our society. I wanted to show the real problem at hand. Using drugs or selling drugs I don’t consider it to be bad in my opinion, what is really bad is to torture, to kill, punish other people inhumanely. That’s what I think is the worst. I believed that in order to be honest to what I felt I had to show those scenes. At the end of the day, they are brief scenes; the movie is more than that. However, those parts had to have their weight, their importance. It’s interesting to see the entanglements of drug distribution or corruption, but in the end, for me, the core of the situation are those scenes. We see young men committing such acts, torturing, and I felt they needed to be significant.
Aguilar: In a sense, the fact that you chose to include young men and children in some the most violent scenes speaks of the social corrosion the country is living. Kids want to grow up to be drug dealers. Why did you choose to include them?
Escalante. Yes. I needed to highlight this with strong visuals. The fact that they are young men and children emphasizes the problem that exists. Since people in Mexico are so used to this already, if in that scene there were 40-year-old men or a man with a hat and a mustache torturing the boys, it would be much different than seeing these young men, who are the future of Mexico, doing this. In a certain way, they are what I think is the most delicate part of this situation, and they are also the only hope. That’s the reason why children are the ones witnessing these acts in the film, because I wanted to show the spectator that they are the most vulnerable part and the ones we should care for.
Aguilar: How did you work with cast? I understand that for many of them this was their first time in front of the camera. Was this more difficult given their inexperience?
Escalante: It was difficult, but I think it is difficult with actors and non-actors. To elicit touching performances and hook the audience with them is hard and delicate. When I write, part of my writing process is the casting. I write while we are trying to get the money to make the film, and at the same I do the casting. Everything blends together. When I’m doing the casting I meet lots on interesting people. Also, sometimes as I walk down the street I see people that inspire me, and even if they are not actors, instead of just using them as inspiration and casting someone else to play them, I like to cast them and put them in the film. It is difficult at times because they get nervous in front of the camera, so you have to be very subtle and not lose control of the situation. You have to be aware that it is going to be hard to make the scenes believable, and there are going to be limits with non-actors, but what they bring sometimes is more than what a trained actor could.
There are actors who can contribute important things, but in general I have a hard time finding actors that convince me. Therefore sometimes I prefer to go directly to real people. The protagonist in Heli, Armando Espitia, he wants to be an actor, and I worked with him almost the same way I worked with the rest. Any director whether he directs actors or non-actors would say that it is a joined effort, and that you have to be careful. For example, in the torture scenes, those were people who had never been on screen and it was really difficult, because even though they didn’t have to do much those were complex sequences. I tried to do my best. Since I’m now filming on digital format I have the luxury to shoot many takes and experiment and improvise, I think has helped with actors.
Aguilar: Despite everything that Heli’s family endures throughout the film, there is a sense of hope at the end. They subconsciously have to move on. Was that your intention?
Escalante: That’s the feeling I think exists here in Mexico. Life goes on regardless of everything, and that’s how it is all over the world. Whatever happens to you this [life] goes on and one has to try to figure out how to keep going. The cycle of life, the hope that exists every time a new life begins is what pushes human beings to continue. We try to fix our mistakes via the new generation, that’s the sentiment I wanted to convey.
Aguilar: After winning Best Director in Cannes, and now that film is representing Mexico at the Academy Awards, is there any pressure or expectations?
Escalante: What takes a bit of the pressure off is the fact that the selection process here in Mexico was very democratic. We didn’t do any type of lobbying or anything of the sort, they trusted the film enough to send it. There is a sense of responsibility because we know there is work to do in the U.S to give the film the chance to get a nomination. We have put effort in whatever we can, but we know the rest is out of our control. We just have to wait and see. The film speaks for itself, we don’t have thousands of dollars to promote it, so we will see what happens.
Aguilar: What do you think the reaction of the Mexican community abroad, specifically in the U.S will be? Do you think they might be unaffected or disconnected because of the distance?
Escalante: My experience has been the opposite. When one is abroad, as a Mexican, you begin to idealize the country. You tell your friends there “When you have a chance we should visit my country. Yes there is violence but is not that bad” That’s also real. Sometimes when a Mexican outside of Mexico sees these types of films, they might feel sadness and anguish, perhaps more than those here. In Mexico the movie did really good, many people went to see it. They thought it was an important film that needed to be seen, and a film that tackles what Mexico is suffering right now. In that regard, I feel that outside of Mexico it could be touchier, but I think people are interested. I feel like any Mexican in any part of the world will understand.
Read the Review for 'Heli' Here
Carlos Aguilar: Your film is a powerful, and fearless statement about Mexico today. How did you develop the screenplay to encompass all its thematic elements?
Amat Escalante: I started writing the script about five years ago. I get my ideas through images, so the first image I had was of a young man looking for his father in the countryside. From that point on the story developed, and I wanted to do something around the General Motors plant in Guanajuato, which is close to where I live. I wanted to portray the environment that has surged in the 25 years the plant has been there, lots of families have moved here and small towns have been created around it. I wanted to create a story about one of these families.
That’s how I went about developing the story. There wasn’t really a lot of investigative research on the subject. I felt like I didn’t have to do a lot of research because everything that is in the movie are things that everyone knows about. What I did was construct a story to tell these things that happen but giving them a face, some characters, a family. To see how these issues affected this specific family. I was hopeful that through these characters I was going to tell a story that grabbed the audience’s attention.
Aguilar: Do you believe cinema can be a tool to create conscience about these issues?
Escalanate: Yes, I don’t know if it’s conscience or more of a catharsis. When one lives and sees the things that happen in Mexico, or you hear of what happens to other citizens, it is anguishing and you don’t really know what to do. I have the the possibility to make movies, and I try to put in them my preoccupation regarding what happens in the country. It is important to do this. It doesn’t mean all movies have to be that way, or talk about the reality or about what is happening, but I do feel there is a void. There is a lot of information on the drug war and about all the violence that comes with it. What’s missing is a more personal vision, a more profound vision about the people not only about the events, in which it seems that ghosts or monsters are the ones killing people, the ones who behead them or hang them.
I wanted to show the human side of these tragic events that have been happening. I consider it important. There are many movies of other kinds in Mexico and around the world, but about these events happening in Mexico I believe too little has been done artistically. There are always two other films that are mentioned on the subject Miss Bala and El Infierno, but for 8 years of intense war against the drug dealers I think it’s too few. I know it is a topic that leaks into other films but few have approached it in such a deep or interesting manner.
Aguilar: Much has been said about the violence depicted in the film. Why did you feel it was necessary to show it in that manner?
Escalante: If it weren’t for these things that are happening, all this violence, and the people perpetrating these acts, the problem wouldn’t be so serious. But the reason why this worries me so much is because of this level of violence, of dehumanization, of lack of values within our society. I wanted to show the real problem at hand. Using drugs or selling drugs I don’t consider it to be bad in my opinion, what is really bad is to torture, to kill, punish other people inhumanely. That’s what I think is the worst. I believed that in order to be honest to what I felt I had to show those scenes. At the end of the day, they are brief scenes; the movie is more than that. However, those parts had to have their weight, their importance. It’s interesting to see the entanglements of drug distribution or corruption, but in the end, for me, the core of the situation are those scenes. We see young men committing such acts, torturing, and I felt they needed to be significant.
Aguilar: In a sense, the fact that you chose to include young men and children in some the most violent scenes speaks of the social corrosion the country is living. Kids want to grow up to be drug dealers. Why did you choose to include them?
Escalante. Yes. I needed to highlight this with strong visuals. The fact that they are young men and children emphasizes the problem that exists. Since people in Mexico are so used to this already, if in that scene there were 40-year-old men or a man with a hat and a mustache torturing the boys, it would be much different than seeing these young men, who are the future of Mexico, doing this. In a certain way, they are what I think is the most delicate part of this situation, and they are also the only hope. That’s the reason why children are the ones witnessing these acts in the film, because I wanted to show the spectator that they are the most vulnerable part and the ones we should care for.
Aguilar: How did you work with cast? I understand that for many of them this was their first time in front of the camera. Was this more difficult given their inexperience?
Escalante: It was difficult, but I think it is difficult with actors and non-actors. To elicit touching performances and hook the audience with them is hard and delicate. When I write, part of my writing process is the casting. I write while we are trying to get the money to make the film, and at the same I do the casting. Everything blends together. When I’m doing the casting I meet lots on interesting people. Also, sometimes as I walk down the street I see people that inspire me, and even if they are not actors, instead of just using them as inspiration and casting someone else to play them, I like to cast them and put them in the film. It is difficult at times because they get nervous in front of the camera, so you have to be very subtle and not lose control of the situation. You have to be aware that it is going to be hard to make the scenes believable, and there are going to be limits with non-actors, but what they bring sometimes is more than what a trained actor could.
There are actors who can contribute important things, but in general I have a hard time finding actors that convince me. Therefore sometimes I prefer to go directly to real people. The protagonist in Heli, Armando Espitia, he wants to be an actor, and I worked with him almost the same way I worked with the rest. Any director whether he directs actors or non-actors would say that it is a joined effort, and that you have to be careful. For example, in the torture scenes, those were people who had never been on screen and it was really difficult, because even though they didn’t have to do much those were complex sequences. I tried to do my best. Since I’m now filming on digital format I have the luxury to shoot many takes and experiment and improvise, I think has helped with actors.
Aguilar: Despite everything that Heli’s family endures throughout the film, there is a sense of hope at the end. They subconsciously have to move on. Was that your intention?
Escalante: That’s the feeling I think exists here in Mexico. Life goes on regardless of everything, and that’s how it is all over the world. Whatever happens to you this [life] goes on and one has to try to figure out how to keep going. The cycle of life, the hope that exists every time a new life begins is what pushes human beings to continue. We try to fix our mistakes via the new generation, that’s the sentiment I wanted to convey.
Aguilar: After winning Best Director in Cannes, and now that film is representing Mexico at the Academy Awards, is there any pressure or expectations?
Escalante: What takes a bit of the pressure off is the fact that the selection process here in Mexico was very democratic. We didn’t do any type of lobbying or anything of the sort, they trusted the film enough to send it. There is a sense of responsibility because we know there is work to do in the U.S to give the film the chance to get a nomination. We have put effort in whatever we can, but we know the rest is out of our control. We just have to wait and see. The film speaks for itself, we don’t have thousands of dollars to promote it, so we will see what happens.
Aguilar: What do you think the reaction of the Mexican community abroad, specifically in the U.S will be? Do you think they might be unaffected or disconnected because of the distance?
Escalante: My experience has been the opposite. When one is abroad, as a Mexican, you begin to idealize the country. You tell your friends there “When you have a chance we should visit my country. Yes there is violence but is not that bad” That’s also real. Sometimes when a Mexican outside of Mexico sees these types of films, they might feel sadness and anguish, perhaps more than those here. In Mexico the movie did really good, many people went to see it. They thought it was an important film that needed to be seen, and a film that tackles what Mexico is suffering right now. In that regard, I feel that outside of Mexico it could be touchier, but I think people are interested. I feel like any Mexican in any part of the world will understand.
- 6/11/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: Escalante’s Mexico Still Suffering
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
Amat Escalante doesn’t fall far from his own tree with Heli, graphic violence once again contours what is necessarily difficult to fathom, swallow and watch. Employing crisp, unflinching, arresting visuals and a genial temporal and spatial mapping, the more alluring portions in this fractured timeline narrative are the protagonist’s gradual transformation into machismo and rarely addressed forms of psychological pathos. Tantalized with extreme, shock-value friendly, albeit necessary violent depictions that simply underline desensitized conditioning on a much smaller scale, here the filmmaker can be faulted not for his prowess in framing or filling his composition, but for trying to package several footnotes that might have contributed to the hemorrhaging nation.
Sangre (2005), his brilliant debut film was a sardonic, nihilistic take on an already fragile nation, while Los basterdos (2008) was hell-bent on symbolically addressing the humiliation brought about...
- 6/11/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Heli, Mexico's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : Outsiders Pictures. International Sales Agent: Ndm (Mantarraya Productions)
For close to a decade now, the Mexican people have been served a daily dose of terror. Tortured, beheaded, and dismembered bodies appear every day scatter around the country as retribution and collateral damage of the ongoing drug war. Reveling in the ubiquitous impunity, such elaborate nightmarish scenes have become the cartels’ preferred method for effective narco-propaganda. Left powerless and frightened, the citizens’ only hope for sanity is to ignore and go on praying the deplorable violence doesn’t reach their homes.
Naturally, such frustration infects all forms of artistic expression, being cinema the most vivid of them all.
Nonetheless, the subject has been blatantly avoided by most of the country’s filmmakers. As the quotidian carnage becomes a perpetual occurrence, it is often observed from a distance achieving an unsettling normality. Through this disconnection the dead are rendered to a numeric value, nothing more than a statistic. Film allows the creator to humanize the victims and the perpetrators, and to make them relevant once again. Mindful of this, and serving as cathartic vehicle to voice the nation’s anguish, Amat Escalante’s film Heli is a gripping and unforgettable tour de force.
Emerging all over the Mexican rural landscape, factories and industrial plants have become the origin from which makeshift communities sprawl. Families settle in the vicinity as their lives become dictated by the only source of licit employment in the area. Like most of the men in his small town in the state of Guanajuato, Heli (Armando Espitia), a young family man, works at the Hirotec plant assembling cars, as does his father. Together they support Heli’s sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), a spunky teenage girl, his similarly young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and his infant son Santiago. Surely they manage to make ends meet earning an honest living, but there are visible apathetic undertones in their behavior that resemble the vast desolation of the arid setting.
Falling in love for the first time, middle schooler Estela is secretly dating 17-year-old cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). Easily amused, she enjoys going for rides in his worn out car while he proudly showcases his strength and knowledge acquired during military training. Despite Beto’s efforts to get intimate, their juvenile romance is something rather innocent and pure. The young man has plans of marrying Estela and moving away, but in order to realize his ambition he decides to take a dangerous route. Familiar with his superior’s illegal hiding spot, he steals a couple cocaine packages and hides them in Estela family’s water tank with intentions of reselling them.
Casually discovering the packages, Heli doesn’t hesitate to destroy them, and immediately prohibits Estela from seeing her boyfriend. Still, it is already to late to avoid the consequences of their involuntary involvement. Just as Heli and his father discus the incident, a squad of murderous policemen breaks in to then kill the older man. Heli and his sister are kidnapped alongside Beto to be punished for their family's fault. After enduring appalling torture, Heli survives the ordeal, but is now faced with unfathomable hardships to rebuild his life. Between the flagrantly shameless corruption of the authorities and his pent up frustration, Heli can’t make sense out of his helpless condition. Having no clue of Estela’s whereabouts, he is taken over by violence and the need for liberating vengeance.
From newcomer Espitia in the eponymous and crucial role of Heli, to the young boys forced to witness and participate in the sadistic physical punishments, the director’s use of non-professional actors delivers mesmerizing results. In addition to the perfect naturalism and credibility offered by the performers, the piece is shot with and eerie allure, which takes advantage of the sweeping landscapes of southern central Mexico. Intensely beautiful, but equally disturbing in content, the film conveys its highly political yet humanistic message, in a purely cinematic manner.
Tackled with unflinching courage, the shocking realism is never overdone. Escalante’s vision is one of audacious commitment to expose brutality without restraint. Deliberately harsh, the gruesomeness is not there for mere gratuitous exploitation, but to purposely make a statement about the indignant state of the country. The social degradation his film examines emanates not only from the drug war, but also from the abysmal economic inequality, the lack of opportunities, and an amoral government.
Via this family’s ravaged lives he looks at Mexico’s current chaos straight in the eyes fearless of the backlash and with spellbinding, almost heroic, artistry. Escalante is a fearless auteur that refuses to condone the complicity of indifference. He knows the truth must be told regardless of how disconcerting it may be. Heli is an intoxicating and striking piece of filmmaking that inhabits the viewer’s psyche long after the evocative final sequence comes to an end. Furthermore, in the midst of such alarming and unnerving disarray, Escalante offers hope. As a fellow Mexican, this writer applauds him.
"Heli" Opens in Los Angeles (Laemmle's Playhouse 7/NoHo 7) and in New York (Cinema Village) on June 13th, 2014
This review was originally published last year as part of our coverage for the Foreign Language Oscar Submissions...
For close to a decade now, the Mexican people have been served a daily dose of terror. Tortured, beheaded, and dismembered bodies appear every day scatter around the country as retribution and collateral damage of the ongoing drug war. Reveling in the ubiquitous impunity, such elaborate nightmarish scenes have become the cartels’ preferred method for effective narco-propaganda. Left powerless and frightened, the citizens’ only hope for sanity is to ignore and go on praying the deplorable violence doesn’t reach their homes.
Naturally, such frustration infects all forms of artistic expression, being cinema the most vivid of them all.
Nonetheless, the subject has been blatantly avoided by most of the country’s filmmakers. As the quotidian carnage becomes a perpetual occurrence, it is often observed from a distance achieving an unsettling normality. Through this disconnection the dead are rendered to a numeric value, nothing more than a statistic. Film allows the creator to humanize the victims and the perpetrators, and to make them relevant once again. Mindful of this, and serving as cathartic vehicle to voice the nation’s anguish, Amat Escalante’s film Heli is a gripping and unforgettable tour de force.
Emerging all over the Mexican rural landscape, factories and industrial plants have become the origin from which makeshift communities sprawl. Families settle in the vicinity as their lives become dictated by the only source of licit employment in the area. Like most of the men in his small town in the state of Guanajuato, Heli (Armando Espitia), a young family man, works at the Hirotec plant assembling cars, as does his father. Together they support Heli’s sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), a spunky teenage girl, his similarly young wife Sabrina (Linda González), and his infant son Santiago. Surely they manage to make ends meet earning an honest living, but there are visible apathetic undertones in their behavior that resemble the vast desolation of the arid setting.
Falling in love for the first time, middle schooler Estela is secretly dating 17-year-old cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). Easily amused, she enjoys going for rides in his worn out car while he proudly showcases his strength and knowledge acquired during military training. Despite Beto’s efforts to get intimate, their juvenile romance is something rather innocent and pure. The young man has plans of marrying Estela and moving away, but in order to realize his ambition he decides to take a dangerous route. Familiar with his superior’s illegal hiding spot, he steals a couple cocaine packages and hides them in Estela family’s water tank with intentions of reselling them.
Casually discovering the packages, Heli doesn’t hesitate to destroy them, and immediately prohibits Estela from seeing her boyfriend. Still, it is already to late to avoid the consequences of their involuntary involvement. Just as Heli and his father discus the incident, a squad of murderous policemen breaks in to then kill the older man. Heli and his sister are kidnapped alongside Beto to be punished for their family's fault. After enduring appalling torture, Heli survives the ordeal, but is now faced with unfathomable hardships to rebuild his life. Between the flagrantly shameless corruption of the authorities and his pent up frustration, Heli can’t make sense out of his helpless condition. Having no clue of Estela’s whereabouts, he is taken over by violence and the need for liberating vengeance.
From newcomer Espitia in the eponymous and crucial role of Heli, to the young boys forced to witness and participate in the sadistic physical punishments, the director’s use of non-professional actors delivers mesmerizing results. In addition to the perfect naturalism and credibility offered by the performers, the piece is shot with and eerie allure, which takes advantage of the sweeping landscapes of southern central Mexico. Intensely beautiful, but equally disturbing in content, the film conveys its highly political yet humanistic message, in a purely cinematic manner.
Tackled with unflinching courage, the shocking realism is never overdone. Escalante’s vision is one of audacious commitment to expose brutality without restraint. Deliberately harsh, the gruesomeness is not there for mere gratuitous exploitation, but to purposely make a statement about the indignant state of the country. The social degradation his film examines emanates not only from the drug war, but also from the abysmal economic inequality, the lack of opportunities, and an amoral government.
Via this family’s ravaged lives he looks at Mexico’s current chaos straight in the eyes fearless of the backlash and with spellbinding, almost heroic, artistry. Escalante is a fearless auteur that refuses to condone the complicity of indifference. He knows the truth must be told regardless of how disconcerting it may be. Heli is an intoxicating and striking piece of filmmaking that inhabits the viewer’s psyche long after the evocative final sequence comes to an end. Furthermore, in the midst of such alarming and unnerving disarray, Escalante offers hope. As a fellow Mexican, this writer applauds him.
"Heli" Opens in Los Angeles (Laemmle's Playhouse 7/NoHo 7) and in New York (Cinema Village) on June 13th, 2014
This review was originally published last year as part of our coverage for the Foreign Language Oscar Submissions...
- 6/11/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Family drama, black comedy and mob-imposed cruelty clash in Amat Escalante’s queasy Cannes’ Best Director-winning crime fable, Heli. It goes without saying that the Cannes jury has been known to make mistakes, especially when a film’s politics is allowed to cloud their judgement, but with Heli they rewarded an uneasy mix of ingredients in which any political subtext is muddy, and in which the storyteller is too self-consciously awkward to deliver a flick that one could call wholly satisfying.
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
In modern-day Mexico, 17-year-old Heli (Armando Espitia) lives in a dilapidated homestead with his wife, infant child, father and sister Estela (Andrea Vergara), working in the nearby car plant by night and having his advances rejected by his uninterested wife by day. The hard-living status quo is challenged when Estela’s much older cadet boyfriend, Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), steals two parcels of cocaine belonging to the local cartel,...
- 5/28/2014
- by Brogan Morris
- We Got This Covered
Amat Escalante’s vision of a semi-industrial Mexico besieged by the ciphers and signs of American-style gang warfare is like experiencing a vivid nap-dream that declines into a series of incongruous and nightmarish images and feelings. The editing style and pacing are borrowed from the most effective techniques of modern horror movies, calming you to alpha-state before ripping you abruptly out of it.
Adolescent schoolgirl Estela (Andrea Vergara) lives with her brother Heli (Armando Espitia) and his wife Sabrina (Linda González), and spends her out-of-school hours developing a languid relationship with older boy Alberto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). It’s a casual and precipitous affair, rendered all the more fatalistic and inevitable by the sunburnt landscapes and the implacable industrial backdrop of the American car factory where Heli is employed.
In the boredom and limitation of this existence, curiosity drives Alberto to discover what a shackled dog could possibly be guarding...
Adolescent schoolgirl Estela (Andrea Vergara) lives with her brother Heli (Armando Espitia) and his wife Sabrina (Linda González), and spends her out-of-school hours developing a languid relationship with older boy Alberto (Juan Eduardo Palacios). It’s a casual and precipitous affair, rendered all the more fatalistic and inevitable by the sunburnt landscapes and the implacable industrial backdrop of the American car factory where Heli is employed.
In the boredom and limitation of this existence, curiosity drives Alberto to discover what a shackled dog could possibly be guarding...
- 2/14/2014
- Shadowlocked
★★★★☆ Heli (Armando Espitia), the protagonist of Amat Escalante's 2013 Palme d'Or nominee of the same name, is a young Mexican who lives with his father, his son, his young wife (Linda Gonzalez) and 12-year-old sister, Estella (Andrea Vergara). He's prone to bad luck, keen on his naps and, when a census taker comes to the house, hesitates about how many people live there with him. However, when 17-year-old army cadet Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios) falls in love with Estella and makes plans for the two of them to run away together, Heli's cataclysmic knee-jerk reaction will plunge the family into pitiless and brutal violence.
Narrative films concerned with roving drug gangs, political corruption and barbaric acts of extreme and horrendous violence are depressingly common nowadays and have formed the backdrop for several high profile Hollywood movies in recent years, including Oliver Stone's Savages (2012) and Mexico's own Miss Bala (2011). However,...
Narrative films concerned with roving drug gangs, political corruption and barbaric acts of extreme and horrendous violence are depressingly common nowadays and have formed the backdrop for several high profile Hollywood movies in recent years, including Oliver Stone's Savages (2012) and Mexico's own Miss Bala (2011). However,...
- 10/20/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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