Ver Cine Colombiano: Noticias | Proimágenes Colombia

Virus Tropical is based on the homonymous graphic novel by Powerpaola, a Colombian-Ecuatorian comic that autobiographically tells the stories of a young girl growing up in Quito and Cali. The film portrays her struggle for independence in a limited environment full of stereotypes and a bias towards appearances, the story of a Latin American woman that does not respond to accepted categories and learns the ropes of life as she goes. With a feminine vision of the world, this girl witnesses a series of small crises that shape her personality.
 
The film was screened at Animation is Film Festival, an event held at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The festival was well received for its quality selection as a specialized showcase for the United States market. Various personalities from the world of film and animation attended.
 
Virus tropical competed with The Breadwinner (Ireland, Canada, and Luxembourg) by Nora Twomey, Fireworks (Japan) by Nobuyuki Takeuchi, Mutafukaz (France, Japan) by Guillaume Renard and Shoujirou Nishimi, Night is Short, Walk on Girl (Japan) by Masaaki Yuasa, The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (France) by Patrick Imbert and Benjamin Renner, Big Fish and Begonia (China) by Xuan Liang and Chun Zhang, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (Spain) by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivera, Lu Over the Wall (Japan) by Masaaki Yuasa, Mary and the Witch's Flower (Japan) by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Tehran Taboo (Germany, Austria) by Ali Soozandeh, and Zombillenium (France) by Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord.
 
Santiago Caicedo, the director of Virus Tropical, has won acclaim for his short films Come coco and Uyuyuy, exploring the organic conection between the possibilities of animation and stories. His work has garned him multiple international awards in different festivals throughout the word. He currently lives in Bogota where he works as a director at Timbo Estudio, which produces film, children’s shows, short films, and live shows that involve animation.
 
For her part, the comic artist Powerpaola was born in Ecuador in 1977 and has lived in Colombia, France, Australia, and Argentina. She has been a fellow at the iconic artist residences La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney. “When I wrote and drew Virus Tropical, I wanted to give account of a family’s reality­ – my family, a middle class Colombian family living in Quito in the eighties and Cali in the nineties. Without being fully aware of it, I was writing a coming of age novel, a Bildungsroman.”
 
Virus Tropical will be in Colombian cinemas in April 2018.