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Robe of Gems

Competition 2022
© Visit Films
Isabel and her family take possession of her mother’s villa in rural Mexico where they reconnect with their long-time domestic worker Maria. But things have never been the same since Isabel’s mother left. Once so well looked after, the house is now bare and neglected. Isabel and her husband are growing apart, and their children are increasingly worried about them. Maria’s sister’s disappearance has left her family in distress and forced her to engage in criminal activities with Adan, the son of a local policeman. Isabel decides to go on a dangerous quest, neglecting her own children, as well as her housekeeper’s warning that she does not understand how things work in Mexico’s poorer regions.
Perfectly rendered in wide-framed images and unobtrusively fluid camerawork, the violence is muted and more social and psychological than physical in this first feature directed by Natalia López Gallardo, who has worked as an editor with Amat Escalante, Lisandro Alonso and Carlos Reygadas. Her ensemble film mixes realism, dreams and metaphors in which all the characters experience varying degrees of loss and abandonment. Every day, family members are disappearing through the cracks in society. But those who are most damaged are the ones who have lost a sense of what it means to have a home.
by Natalia López Gallardo
with Nailea Norvind, Antonia Olivares, Aida Roa, Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño, Sherlyn Zavala Diaz, Balam Toledo Mexico / Argentina / USA 2022 Spanish 118’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Nailea Norvind (Isabel)
  • Antonia Olivares (Maria)
  • Aida Roa (Torta)
  • Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño (Adan)
  • Sherlyn Zavala Diaz (Valeria)
  • Balam Toledo (Balam)

Crew

Written and Directed by Natalia López Gallardo
Cinematography Adrián Durazo
Editing Natalia López Gallardo, Omar Guzman, Miguel Schverdfinger
Music Santiago Pedroncini
Sound Design Thomas Becka
Sound Guido Berenblum, Victor Tendler, Raúl Locatelli
Production Design Angela Leyton
Producers Natalia López Gallardo, Joaquin del Paso, Fernanda de la Peza
Co-Producers Benjamin Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Ryan Kampe, Carlos Reygadas
Co-Production Rei Cine Buenos Aires
Pretty____Ideas Brooklyn, NY

World Sales

Visit Films

http://www.visitfilms.com http://www.visitfilms.com

Produced by

Lobo En Medio De Lobos

Cárcava

Photos

Press Conference

Red Carpet

Natalia López Gallardo

© Natalia López Gallardo

The Mexican-Bolivian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor was born in La Paz, Bolivia in 1980. After studying film in Mexico, she edited films by Lisandro Alonso, Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante. Her short film En el cielo como en la tierra screened in the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes in 2007. She currently heads the Splendor Omnia post-production studio located near Mexico City. Robe of Gems is her debut feature film.

Filmography

2007 En el cielo como en la tierra; short film 2022 Robe of Gems

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022