ROBE OF GEMS
[MANTO DE GEMAS]
Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, Natalia López Gallardo's visually arresting, slow-burn feature debut tackles crime, class and corruption in contemporary Mexico. In a remote rural town, three women from very different backgrounds are tragically affected by a missing-person case. Marriage problems have driven Isabel (Nailea Norvind, AFTER LUCÍA), a wealthy mother of two, to move to the countryside villa once owned by her late mother. Her housekeeper, María (Antonia Olivares), is dealing with the disappearance of her sister, a likely victim of the all-too-common kidnappings plaguing the area. Police officer Roberta (Aida Roa) is investigating the case, but has her own ties to the local criminal underworld via her teenaged son Adán (Daniel García, I'M NO LONGER HERE, LA CIVIL), an up-and-coming gangster with big ambitions. Eschewing the tropes of a by-the-numbers crime procedural, López Gallardo (previously an editor for filmmakers such as Carlos Reygadas and Lisandro Alonso) crafts a dense and powerfully atmospheric work that refuses easy answers and builds the tension while revealing an ever-expanding web of violence and trauma. Winner, Silver Bear Jury Prize, 2022 Berlin Film Festival. Official Selection, 2022 New Directors/New Films. DIR/SCR/PROD Natalia López Gallardo; PROD Fernanda de la Peza, Joaquín del Paso. Mexico/Argentina, 2022, color, 118 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 118 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, October 02, 2022
Genre: Thriller, drama
