Within its Competition includes the co-production Amparo by Simón Mesa and the actress Carol Hurtado participates as part of the Spanish film Libertad by Clara Roquet.
The Critics' Week was created in 1962 by the French Trade Union of Film Critics to present first or second films by promising young people in the film industry. This selection has seen outstanding directors such as the French Jacques Audiard and François Ozon, the Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu, the British Ken Loach, the Chinese Wong Kar-wai, among others, who have subsequently created a distinguished international career. Colombian directors such as César Acevedo (winner of the Golden Chamber for La tierra y la sombra), Franco Lolli (Litigante, Gente de bien), Camilo Matíz (1989) and Pepe Sánchez (San Antoñito), have also been part of this selection.
Now it's the turn for Amparo, the first feature film by Antioquian director Simón Mesa Soto produced by Juan Sarmiento. Amparo is set in 1998 Colombia and tells the story of Elías, Amparo's eldest son, who is fit for compulsory military service and is assigned to a remote and dangerous battalion. Even though Elías is a difficult young man; he does not work and does not like to study, his mother will do the impossible to prevent him from being taken away.
"Amparo stages a human drama triggered by a very common situation in Colombia that illustrates the vulnerability of women in a society that has become accustomed to war. My film shows a small act of rebellion by a single mother in a country ruled by corrupt men," says the director and screenwriter of the film, Simon Mesa.
Amparo stars Sandra Torres, Diego Tobón and Luciana Gallego. It is a co-production between Ocúltimo, Medio de Contención Producciones Producciones, Evidencia Films, the Swedish production company Momento Film and Flare Film; it has the support of Fondo para el Desarrollo Cinematográfico, Svenska Filminstitutet, Doha Film Institute, Magin Comunicaciones, the Medellín Film Commission and the Goethe-Institut de Bogota. Its production included Simón Mesa Soto in script and direction; John Bedoya in casting; Juan Sarmiento as producer and cinematographer; Marcela Gómez art direction; Carlos Arcila and Ted Krotkiewski, sound; Ricardo Saraiva, editing; and Manuel Ruiz Montealegre and Hector Ulloque in executive production.
During the development process, the project received several stimuli, including the IBERMEDIA Stimulus of co-production to Ibero-American films, Selection Laboratory of Scripts of Oaxaca- Mexico in Collaboration with the Sundance Institute, Selection in the "Producers Workshop Premium" of the Marche du Film at the Cannes Film Festival, Selection in the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana (Cuba) in the section Unpublished Script Contest, among others.
Mesa returns to Cannes, after receiving the Palme d'Or in 2014 for his short film Leidi, and being part of the Official Selection in 2016, with the short film Madre. "Being part of Critics' Week is a chance to celebrate the five years it took to make this film. It was an extensive process, of great happiness, but also of hard work, mistakes and sacrifices that are building you as a filmmaker and as a human being. Regardless of where or how it was going to be shown, this film was a fundamental element in my life, and the only expectation is to be able to share it and celebrate it with the team for everything it was to make it," Mesa told the EFE News Agency.
Amparo will compete alongside Somali director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed's The Gravedigger's Wife; Piccolo Corpo by Italian Laura Samani; the French-Swiss production Olga by Elie Grappe; Rien à foutre by Frenchmen Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre; Feathers by The Egyptian Omar El Zohairy and Libertad by the Spanish director Clara Roquet. In the latter participates as a secondary actress the Colombian Carol Hurtado, who has participated in Siembra by Santiago Lozano and Ángela Osorio. The inaugural film in 2021 will be Robuste, by Switzerland's Constance Meyer, starring French actor Gérard Depardieu.
