Caracas amor a muerte

This film deservedly won the Best Film award at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival this year. It is the story of a young girl, Aixa, who gets pregnant by her boyfriend, a criminal sought after by the police. Her grandmother wants her to get an abortion, and convinces a young doctor to perform it, against the opposition of a local priest and Aixa's boyfriend. This is a great ensemble piece, with beautifully acted three-dimentional characters.

This film deserves to be mentioned with the recent Mexican films that have received such acclaim (some might disagree but I actually like it better than "Amores Perros"). As a bit of background, there are around 100 murders each weekend in Caracas. Power failures are also frequent in the city, which comes into play. There's more to the story than that, but it's good background to have. Music is also central to the story. That this is Balza's first film is amazing. Well worth seeing if you can find it.