La virgen de los sicarios (2000)

Director:

Barbet Schroeder

Writers:

Fernando Vallejo (novel)
Fernando Vallejo (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 September 2000 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

The tempestuous love story between Fernando, an older man who has recently returned to his crime-ridden drug capitol hometown of Medellin...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Medellin Colombia | Drugs | Love | Violence

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Germán Jaramillo	...	Fernando
Anderson Ballesteros	...	Alexis
Juan David Restrepo	...	Wilmar
Manuel Busquets	...	Alfonso
Wilmar Agudelo	...	Child Sniffing Glue
Juan Carlos Álvarez	...	4x4 Thief
Jairo Alzate	...	Taxi Driver Santa Domingo
Zulma Arango	...	Waitress
José Luis Bedoya	...	Taxi Sabaneta 1
Cenobia Cano	...	Alexis's Mother
Eduardo Carvajal	...	Taxi Driver Clinic
Olga Lucía Collazos	...	Pregnant Woman
Jorge A. Correa	...	Dead Man
Phanor Delgado	...	Taxi Driver with Machete
Albeiro Lopera	...	Punk

Also Known As:

La vierge des tueurs (France)
La virgen de los sicarios (Colombia)
Our Lady of the Assassins (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, language, sexuality and drug content.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Spain | France | Colombia

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA (cable rating) | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | France:-12 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia

Company:

Canal+

Quotes:

Fernando: You can't live without sex. People go crazy without sex. Look how nutty the Pope's become. Spouting crap everywhere and kissing floors. Saying that homosexuality and all that is a sin. That's a sin? Having kids is a sin! There's no space left, the Planet will explode!

Soundtrack:

Cuntipotens Genitor Deus

should be forced on all news spokesmen with Colombian corpses in the background

Prepared as we are for the image of Columbia that CNN shoves down our throats- full of Narcos, Paracos and desperate politicians-, there is no way to predict the surreal way of life the characters in this movie pass through. This is a film that penetrates into a very real Medellin, where nothing is certain and everything is so vulnerable that human life seems to exist only the instant in which it takes place. Medellin is like Fernando- the main character-, it is like his way of walking through a church in the feverishly catholic ambient of Latin America with his sixteen year old murderer lover- who is actually more like an angel fallen from grace. Alexis- the young shooter- is the result of a less than miserable way of life, where poverty and violence rape viciously at each other, almost to a point of neutralization, what seems perverse is in the end the most innocent. This film is strong and profound, it should be forced on all news spokesmen with Colombian corpses in the background: `Lady this is Medellin, not Switzerland'.