Ana Paula
Leigh Marling
United States, 2023, 46 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Includes violence.
AIFF Award Winner:
Best Short Feature
ANA PAULA is the heartbreaking story of a young Mexican woman determined to escape her past and adopt her niece from a government orphanage in Durango. When a judge explains her case cannot proceed without a ‘suitable home’, Ana employs desperate measures to find the necessary cash. When Fernando sees her desperation and offers to help, a tender romance blossoms. But when Ana is forced back into a toxic life of vice she and Fernando must face the ruthless criminals who seek to exploit her.
Director's Statement
Femicide, domestic abuse and sexual exploitation have become endemic in Mexican society where around 10 women are murdered every day in gender based attacks. Add to those, the thousands of females who have been ‘disappeared’ and those grim statistics seem to underestimate the crisis in ongoing violence against women. Against this backdrop and during many long research trips to Mexico, the filmmakers met some of these women and became inspired to create a film about one of them.
Category: Drama, Award Winner.
Themes: Border, Gangs, World Cinema.
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