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June 26, 2009
Another Movie Suggestion
Free time again:
I was thinking about my mention of la Virgen de los Sicarios, and wanted to recommend an even better movie. Keep in mind that both la Virgen and the movie I am about to recommend are bittersweet topics for local people. They depict what many would consider the dark side of Medellin: poverty and violence.
In my humble opinion, however, both movies are far deeper than that. They show the strange, admirable and beautiful expressions of humanity that are common in a city with such a difficult past. Many Medellin residents would love to see a feature film about the city's beautiful women, famous flower arrangements, tall buildings and gourmet restaurants, but I think that would be a lost opportunity to show what is truly remarkable about this city: its people, their strength, and their desire to survive.
On that note, I VERY highly recommend La Vendedora de Rosas, or the Rose Seller. I don't know if that's the official English translation. This highly praised movie hired real street kids as actors in a fictional but very realistic story about life on the streets of Medellin.
Given the great success of the heavily fictionalized Slumdog Millionaire, la Vendedora de Rosas is even more valuable as one of the most realistic depictions I've seen of childhood and adolescence at the lonely, violent bottom of a highly stratified society.
A warning: La Vendedora de Rosas is a very intense movie, without a traditional happy ending. It is an honest depiction of an unimaginably horrible reality. Nevertheless, if you are capable of digesting human tragedy on film, you will find it to be a movie that says a lot about humanity's ability to survive and find happiness in an environment marked only by death and abandonment.
I also encourage everyone to research the stories of the movie's actors after filming. Some have found success and formed families, others have been killed, and others are in prison.
Posted by Pablo Rojas at June 26, 2009 05:03 PM
