Maria Full of Grace

Dir. Joshua Marston, 2004

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Wed 16 January 2008 // 19:30 / Cinema

Cantina Latina! Goes to Colombia. Maria, a 17-year-old young woman, takes drastic measures to escape her mundane life in a rural Colombian town.

Maria Full of GraceMaria, a 17-year-old young woman, takes drastic measures to escape her mundane life in a rural Colombian town.

Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroin, which she must swallow to transport to New York. On arrival, she gets entangled with immigration and caught up in the ruthless world of international drug trafficking and has to make decisions to protect herself and her future. Maria Full of Grace is not one true story, but based on 1,000 everyday true stories. 

Americano-Columbian, the film was internationally acclaimed and won a multitude of awards in Europe, the USA and South America. The actress Catalina Sandino Moreno won the Best Actress prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and she was nominated for Best Actress in a leading role for the Oscar. The director Joshua Marston won the Audience Award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

The New Yorker's critic praised the actress's performance, and wrote:

"Maria’s story—an everyday experience of terror which has the shape of a fable—may not seem important enough, or sympathetic enough, or violent enough for a Hollywood feature, but for those of us who want to know the details, the habits, the emotions of this particular comingto-America story, the absence of hype is a relief. The reality is scary enough."

The film will be followed by music with a DJ at the bar.

¡Cantina Latina! is a monthly Spanish film and music night. Cost £4 film, £2 music only (after 9pm)

 www.myspace.com/cantinalatina