Piola, the first feature film by director Luis Alejandro Pérez, was selected to participate in the Official Competition of the Malaga Film Festival in its twenty-third edition, which starts on March 13. In this way the film about a group of Chilean teenagers linked to hip hop, positions its prestigious status after having won six awards in the Work in Progress section of the Guadalajara Festival last year. It will be at this last meeting where he will say present once again at the end of this month, now to compete in the Official Competition of the Mexican contest that turns 35 years old, thus enlisting its premiere in Chilean cinemas in November 2020.
A pulse-made film
“Piola is a film that was made at a pulse, without support from the Audiovisual Fund, knocking on many doors and doing collaborative work. Practically for the love of movies. And to see that we are going to compete with big films, some produced by Netflix, or that have important financing, is a pride and a tremendous emotion” commented Luis Alejandro Pérez, who together with the producers Cecilia Otero and Sylvana Squicciarini, is partnered with the production company Otrofoco to carry out the project.
“For us it is a dream come true, the only fact of being selected for the official competition of Malaga is already a tremendous achievement, especially because of the importance of this festival, one of the greatest not only in Spain, but of Spanish cinema” added Rolando Santana, Producer and Founder of Otrofoco.
Young talented but few opportunities
Piola narrates the anecdotes of a teenage trio in Quilicura. Martín (the debutant Max Salgado) and Charly (René Miranda, Volantín Cortao) spend their time making rap music. After a night out, they find a loaded gun on the banks of a hill. In parallel Sol (Ignacia Uribe, Mala junta, My friend Alexis), loses his dog and must deal with an unrequited love. Seemingly disjointed, these stories are intimately linked: they form the portrait of young Chileans in their difficult transition to adulthood.
“It’s a film that talks about talented young people with few opportunities. About the search for your space and vocation. Characters who are expelled from classrooms, their homes, parties and even the street when they try to record a video clip. They’re young people who don’t have a place. His place is found in his friends and in the music that hosts them” comments Pérez, about his debut opera that will be distributed in Chile by Storyboard Media.
Max Salgado its protagonist comments: “For me to be at these festivals is very important, the film was made with few resources and its quality and professionalism make the work very good. It is a cinema that reflects the needs of people who are not always visible. Of those impoverished post-dictatorship people.”
The Malaga Festival began its history in 1998 and has been characterized by catapulting the most relevant premieres of Ibero-American cinema. PIOLA is the only Chilean film that is selected to be part of the Official Competition.
For its part, in the Mexican contest of Guadalajara founded in 1986, the film shares a poster with another national film, Spider by Andrés Wood.
