Noche de fuego

Three girls – Ana, Paula, and María – live in a remote mountain village dominated by drug cartels. Most of the adult men have left to earn money elsewhere, but they don’t send money home to the women they have left behind. The women work in the poppy fields, and try to keep their daughters out of the hands of the clans.

Mexican director Tatiana Huezo has previously made socially committed documentaries that have won awards all over the world, such as El lugar más pequeño (2011) and Tempestad (2016). Her first feature-length fiction film, Noche de fuego is loosely based on the factual book Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement from 2014 (published in the Netherlands as Gebed voor de vermisten), and combines the merciless realism of contemporary Mexico with the enchanting gaze of three children. The girls (in the first half aged nine, in the second on the threshold of adolescence) give astonishing performances, the photography is intoxicatingly beautiful, and the soundscape also contributes to an atmosphere that meanders between pure horror and fairytale. Acknowledged with a special mention from the jury of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes film festival.

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This film is part of the vfonds Freedomline. Click here for an overview of the other films that have been selected for the Freedomline