Los hongos

  • 103'
  • Colombia
  • 2014

Ready to watch this film?

Friends Ras and Calvin criss-cross the Colombian provincial city of Cali - birthplace of filmmaker Oscar Ruiz Navia - by skateboard and BMX looking for money to buy paint, an empty wall to fill, and something greater to be part of.
Coming from totally different social backgrounds, but equally alienated from their parents, they share a striking friendship. They recognise kindred spirits in a YouTube film of the Arab Spring, which inspires them to provide a contribution to a collective piece with a group of local street artists. Hongos, ‘mushrooms’, the director calls them: they thrive on rotting matter.
Just as in his debut Crab Trap, Ruiz Navia mixes documentary and fiction to capture the diffuse reality of his characters. Painting is never far away: some tableaux breathe the dreamy atmosphere of primitivism, for instance in scenes that portray the almost idyllic bond between Calvin and his grandmother.


  • 103'
  • Colombia
  • 2014

Ready to watch this film?

Director
Oscar Ruiz Navia
Countries of production
Colombia, Argentina, France, Germany
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2015
Length
103'
Medium
DCP
Language
Spanish
Producers
Oscar Ruiz Navia, Gerylee Polanco Uribe, Diana Bustamante Escobar, Nicolás Avruj, Guillaume de Seille, Titus Kreyenberg
Production Companies
Contravía Films, Burning Blue, El Campo Cine, Arizona Films, Unafilm
Sales
FiGa Films
Screenplay
Oscar Ruiz Navia, César Acevedo
Cinematography
Sofia Oggioni Hatty
Editor
Felipe Guerrero
Production Design
Daniela Shneider, Alejandro Franco
Sound Design
Frédéric Théry, Leandro de Loredo, César Salazar
Music
Sebastián Escofet, La Llegada del Dios Rata, Zalama Crew
Cast
Jovan Alexis Marquinez Angulo
Local Distributor
Hubert Bals Fund
Director
Oscar Ruiz Navia
Countries of production
Colombia, Argentina, France, Germany
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2015
Length
103'
Medium
DCP
Language
Spanish
Producers
Oscar Ruiz Navia, Gerylee Polanco Uribe, Diana Bustamante Escobar, Nicolás Avruj, Guillaume de Seille, Titus Kreyenberg
Production Companies
Contravía Films, Burning Blue, El Campo Cine, Arizona Films, Unafilm
Sales
FiGa Films
Screenplay
Oscar Ruiz Navia, César Acevedo
Cinematography
Sofia Oggioni Hatty
Editor
Felipe Guerrero
Production Design
Daniela Shneider, Alejandro Franco
Sound Design
Frédéric Théry, Leandro de Loredo, César Salazar
Music
Sebastián Escofet, La Llegada del Dios Rata, Zalama Crew
Cast
Jovan Alexis Marquinez Angulo
Local Distributor
Hubert Bals Fund