American writer-director Joshua Marston's debut feature is a low-key, affecting portrait of a teenager trying to escape her family's relentless poverty by working as a mule, smuggling drugs internally out of Colombia into the United States. Seventeen-year-old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) lives in an impoverished backwater not far from Bogota and supports her mother (Virginia Ariza), sister (Johanna Andrea Mora) and infant nephew by working at the local flower factory. She and her shy best friend, Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), unambitious boyfriend, Juan (Wilson Guerrero), and virtually every other employed adult in town sort, de-thorn and bundle roses for export, clo...
Released:
2004
Rated:
R
Length:
101 mins