Mateo
A film by María Gamboa
Colombia/France, Drama/Social Issue, 2014
86 min, HD, Color
Spanish with English subtitles
This film was screened as a part of the 2014 Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (CLAIFF17)
Mateo, 16, collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle and uses his pay to help out his mother, who grudgingly accepts the ill-gotten money out of need. They live by themselves in the poor, violent neighborhoods alongside the Magdalena River valley in Colombia. To prove his worth, Mateo agrees to infiltrate a local theater group in order to uncover its members’ political activities. As he becomes enthralled with the free-flowing creative lifestyle of the troupe, his uncle escalates demands on him to produce incriminating information on the actors. Under pressure, Mateo must make difficult choices. At the Miami International Film Festival, where MATEO had its world premiere, the film won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay.
Texas Premiere
About the director
María Gamboa has studied film and television production at NYU (New York) and screenwriting at La Femis (Paris). She has taken part in over 20 productions as editor, producer and assistant director in USA and France. She is currently based in Bogotá, where she has directed two TV series and the internationally awarded short film 20 MIL. María has also developed and taught a course on directing actors at the local university Jorge Tadeo Lozano.
Credits
Producer: Daniel García, Maria Fernanda Barrientos, Thierry Lenouvel Production Companies: Día-Fragma Fábrica de Películas, Ciné-Sud Promotion Screenwriter: María Gamboa, Adriana Arjona Cinematographer: Diego Jiménez Editor: Gustavo Vasco, Jacques Comets Sound Design: César Salazar Music: Marc Huri Cast: Carlos Hernández, Felipe Botero, Miriam “Pesca” Gutiérrez, Samuel Lazcano, Leidy Niño
Print Source: Alpha Violet, info@alphaviolet.com
