Gueros (DVD and VOD)

Güeros is a road movie in which the travellers barely manage to leave town. A coming of age comedy which pays homage to the French new wave. Being a somewhat unusual film, Güeros begins with a rather different kind of explosion: a water bomb bursts in a baby stroller. It is thrown by teenager Tomás from a block of flats. Since the lad is clearly too much of a handful for his mother, she packs him off to stay with his big brother who is studying in Mexico City. It’s 1999. Fede, also known to his friends as Sombra, lives with Santos in a concrete pre-fab. They are currently striking against the strike which their fellow-students are organising at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Tomás has brought a cassette along with him; the tape is part of his father’s legacy and contains the music of Epigmenio Cruz. They say his songs moved Bob Dylan to tears, and that he could have saved Mexico’s rock music scene from ruin. When the trio learns that their idol is in hospital fading fast and alone, they set off in their rusty heap of a car to pay their last respects to this one-time rock star. What they thought would be a simple trip to find their childhood idol, soon becomes a voyage of self-discovery across Mexico City’s invisible frontiers.

Best First Feature, Berlin International Film Festival 2014

Winner Best Cinematography Tribeca Film Festival 2014

Alonso Ruizpalacios is a Mexican film and stage director, and a writer. He was born in Mexico City in 1978. He trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. Previously, he studied directing in Mexico City with the renowned Polish director Ludwik Margules.

For TV he has directed several fiction and non-fiction shows, including Ideas Planet for Discovery Channel, Expedition 1808 for National Geographic Channel and the award-winning drama series XY for Channel 11 Mexico. He has directed many stage plays in some of Mexico’s most prestigious theatre venues, including Chekhov’s The Kiss, Rock n Roll by Tom Stoppard, The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker and Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. Alonso also works as a screenwriter for several TV fiction series.

In 2008 he wrote and directed Café Paraíso, which earned him the Mexican Film Academy’s Ariel for Best Short, as well as awards at the international film festivals of Huesca (Spain), Guadalajara, Short Shorts (Mexico), Sapporo (Japan), and was official selection at Tribeca (NYC), Clermont Ferrand (France) and 15 other international festivals. His third short film The Cu Bird’s Last Song also won the Ariel for Best Short in 2011, as well as awards at the festivals of Monterrey and Fastnet (Ireland).

His first feature Güeros, won the Development Grant from Fundación Carolina and Casa de América (Spain), as well as the National Fund for Film Production (FOPROCINE), with which the project was green-lit by the National Film Institute of Mexico (IMCINE). Güeros won Best First Feature at Berlin Film Festival and had its UK Premiere at the London Film Festival.

Filmography

Short Films

2008            Café Paraíso

2010            The Cú Bird’s Last Song

Feature-Length Film

2014            Güeros

Cast

Sombra      Tenoch Huerta

Tomás        Sebastián Aguirre

Ana            Ilse Salas

Santos        Leonardo Ortizgris

Epigmenio        Alfonso Charpener

Isabel          Laura Almela

Furia            RaúlBriones Carmona

Pichón          Yojarth Okamota Brambila

Aurora          Camila Lora Ruiz

Aurora’s Mom     Carmen Ramos

Jesús            Alfonso Bravo

Moco            Adrián Ladrón

El Oso          Himself

Esperanza          Alicia Laguna

Woman in Despair        Sophie Alexander-Katz

Dr. Ibarra        Alonso Ruiz Palacios

Weeping Woman       Rosa María de la Fuente

Crew

Directed by                                   Alonso Ruizpalacios

Written by                                     Alonso Ruizpalacios and Gibrán Portela

Produced by                                   Ramiro Ruiz

Associate Producer                         Gael García Bernal

Cinematography                             Damián García

Film Editing                                    Yibrán Asuad and Ana García

Sound                                            Pedro ‘Zulu’ González, Isabel Muñoz, Kyoshi Osawa, Gabriel Reyna

Music by                                        Tomás Barreiro

Production Designer                        Sandra Cabriada

Costume Designer                           Ingrid Sac

A Production of                                Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE) & Postal Producciones

Mexico | 107 minutes | 2014 | 4:3 | In Spanish with English Subtitles

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