Practically everything audiences know about the Colombian drug trade they learned from movies, U.S. news reports or shows like Netflix’s popular “Narcos” — in which cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar is played by a Brazilian actor who speaks Spanish with a ridiculously thick Portuguese accent.
“The story of the foreign misrepresentation of Colombia goes way back. I think the most offensive example is the Brad Pitt movie ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ which presents Bogotá — which is a very big, high-altitude city — as a tropical village,” says Colombian director Ciro Guerra. “You see similar problems in films like ‘Romancing the Stone’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger,’ which are usually shot in Mexico.”
So, when it came to identifying the bad guys in Colombian drug-running epic “Birds of Passage,” Guerra and co-director Cristina Gallego don’t blame Escobar, but a trio of American Peace Corps workers who saw an opportunity to smuggle marijuana in the 1970s.
“The story of the foreign misrepresentation of Colombia goes way back. I think the most offensive example is the Brad Pitt movie ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ which presents Bogotá — which is a very big, high-altitude city — as a tropical village,” says Colombian director Ciro Guerra. “You see similar problems in films like ‘Romancing the Stone’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger,’ which are usually shot in Mexico.”
So, when it came to identifying the bad guys in Colombian drug-running epic “Birds of Passage,” Guerra and co-director Cristina Gallego don’t blame Escobar, but a trio of American Peace Corps workers who saw an opportunity to smuggle marijuana in the 1970s.
- 12/6/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
After his last movie–the trippy, transportive Embrace of the Serpent–became the first Colombian film ever nominated for an Oscar, director Ciro Guerra is back this year with another Academy Awards contender: Birds of Passage, which he co-directed with Cristina Gallego. The drama follows an indigenous family who gets involved in the drug trade in 1970s Colombia as the marijuana business booms. Ahead of a February release by The Orchard, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Birds may follow the rise and fall narrative arc of basically every crime saga since Cagney and Edward G. Robinson began filling theaters in the early ‘30s, but by telling it from the indigenous perspective the filmmakers have made a movie not so much about myth-making and antiheros, but instead a fable about capitalism, lost heritage, and a death of the soul.”
Starring José Acosta,...
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Birds may follow the rise and fall narrative arc of basically every crime saga since Cagney and Edward G. Robinson began filling theaters in the early ‘30s, but by telling it from the indigenous perspective the filmmakers have made a movie not so much about myth-making and antiheros, but instead a fable about capitalism, lost heritage, and a death of the soul.”
Starring José Acosta,...
- 11/20/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"You know what happens to a family in a war." The Orchard has released a new Us trailer for Colombian drug drama Birds of Passage, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Directors' Fortnight. This highly acclaimed film is a crime epic spanning generations, similar to The Godfather or Scarface, focusing on two local gangs who get into the marijuana growing and export business. The two indigenous Colombia families begin a violent drug war that ends up destroying their lives and their culture. Birds of Passage stars José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Carmiña Martínez, John Narváez, Greider Meza, Juan Bautista Martínez, Miguel Viera, and Sergio Coen. The posters for this have been stunning, a few of them can be seen below. The film is an impressive, sprawling crime saga boasting excellent performances all around. Here's the new official Us trailer (+ poster) for Ciro Guerra's Birds of Passage, direct from...
- 11/19/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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