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Netflix’s ‘Counterstrike’ is an action-thriller that immerses viewers in a high-stakes narrative set against the vibrant backdrop of Mexico City. Directed by Chava Cartas and penned by José Rubén Escalante Méndez, Counterstrike showcases the rich cultural and urban landscapes of its primary filming location.

Netflix’s ‘Counterstrike’: Where Was the Film Shot? – Filming Locations & Other Details Mexico City, Mexico

The entirety of ‘Counterstrike’ was filmed on location in Mexico City, the nation’s capital. This metropolis, known for its blend of historical significance and modern urbanity, provided diverse settings that enhanced the film’s intense action sequences. While specific filming sites within the city have not been publicly detailed, the production utilized various locales to authentically depict the story’s events.

Netflix’s ‘Counterstrike’ Plot Overview:

‘Counterstrike’ follows five friends embarking on a shopping trip near the U.S.-Mexico border. Their excursion takes a perilous turn when...

Netflix continues to bring audiences action movie delights from all over the globe with Counterstrike (Aka Contraataque). Helmed by Mexican filmmaker Chava Cartas, the film is delivering on its promise to bring all the explosions a fan of the genre could possibly want. Having landed on the platform on Friday, the film has jumped straight in at number two on the streamer's chart.

Chava Cartas is best known for the action seriesRosario Tijeras, and written by Jose Ruben Escalante Mendez. Counterstrike stars Luis Alberti, Noé Hernández, Luis Curiel, Leonardo Alonso, David Calderón, Guillermo Nava, Israel Islas, Mayra Batalla, Ishbel Bautista, Frida Jiser. You can check out the official synopsis for the action outing below.

“When a hostage rescue mission creates a new enemy, Capt. Guerrero and his elite soldiers must face an ambush by a criminal group.”

Related'John Wick' Creator's First Action Movies with Dolph Lundgren Are Streaming for Free

Before 'John Wick,...

“Counterstrike” is a Mexican Netflix film directed by Chava Cartas, starring Luis Alberti, Noé Hernández, Luis Curiel, and Leonardo Alfonso.

Netflix releases “Counterstrike”, a Mexican thriller that takes us into the world of the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico and the tough operation to arrest one of them (Josefo Urías).

An action movie, a genre thriller that aims to be an action thriller more than a realistic film, with good cinematographic scenes and well-drawn characters.

“Counterstrike” tells us about the mass graves left behind by drug cartels in Mexico but, beyond being a social commentary, it focuses on its action aspect and on giving the viewer a balanced dose between realism and pure thriller.

Directed by Chava Cartas and written by José Rubén Escalante Méndez, “Counterstrike” immerses the viewer in the heart of a dangerous military operation that goes awry. The film follows Captain Guerrero and his squad of...

Netflix continues to bring audiences action movie delights from all over the globe, with the new trailer for Counterstrike (Aka Contraataque), helmed by Mexican filmmaker Chava Cartas, promising to deliver all the explosions a fan of the genre could possibly want. The footage reveals our first look at the action thriller, which boasts a gripping synopsis, as a group five friends find themselves doing battle with a merciless cartel. You can check out the trailer for Counterstrike below.

Directed by Chava Cartas, best known for the action seriesRosario Tijeras, and written by Jose Ruben Escalante Mendez, Counterstrike stars Luis Alberti, Noé Hernández, Luis Curiel, Leonardo Alonso, David Calderón, Guillermo Nava, Israel Islas, Mayra Batalla, Ishbel Bautista, Frida Jiser and is due to hit Netflix later this month on February 28, 2025. You can check out the official synopsis for the action outing below.

“When a hostage rescue mission creates a new enemy,...

"I want each and every one of them torn to shreds!" Not if they take you out first. Netflix has revealed an official trailer for an intense action thriller movie called Counterstrike, made by the Mexican filmmaker Chava Cartas. This is set for a streaming debut on Netflix starting at the end of this month. When a hostage rescue mission creates a new enemy, Capt. Guerrero and his elite soldiers must face an ambush by a ruthless drug cartel. While there have been a few other movies titled Counterstrike before (like this one), this new movie reminds me of the popular video game Counter-Strike made by Valve. With a similar concept about a group of five elite soldiers (basically a group of players hanging out & working together on the same team?) outsmarting the dangerous cartel and taking out the bad guys. Starring Luis Alberti, Noé Hernández, Mayra Batalla, Leonardo Alonso,...

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2024 is nearly over, and while this year saw the release of many brilliant movies, in this article, we are only discussing the best fantasy movies that came out. Fantasy is one of those genres that invokes something magical in all of us, from the heroic journey in The Lord of the Rings films to the coming-of-age fantastical story in Harry Potter, and maybe that’s why this genre has one of the most loyal fan bases. So, let’s find out which fantasy movies released in 2024 were the absolute best.

If Credit – Paramount Pictures

If is a fantasy comedy film written and directed by John Krasinski. The 2024 film follows Bea, a young girl who discovers she can see imaginary friends of other people. She soon sets out on a magical adventure to find human kids to pair them with forgotten imaginary friends.

Rodrigo Prieto is an acclaimed cinematographer known for his frequent collaborations with Alejandro González Iñárritu and Martin Scorsese. Most recently, he was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’. Now, he has returned with his directorial debut, ‘Pedro Paramo, ‘ which is now streaming on Netflix. The film is based on Juan Rulfo’s same-name novel and it premiered at the 2024 TIFF. It is a magic realist fable mapping the life of the titular character mainly through the eyes of his son. Prieto presents multiple fantastical scenes that feel wonderfully mystical on their own. However, when put together, they do not form anything remotely coherent. So, here’s me trying to make sense of its confusion.

Spoilers Ahead

Pedro Paramo (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

‘Pedro Paramo’ on Netflix follows Juan Preciado travelling to Comala to honour his mother’s last wish to meet his estranged father,...

Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has been plying his creative trade in Hollywood for over two decades. His notably instrumental camerawork can be seen in most of Martin Scorsese’s latest works and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” For his directorial debut, Prieto, however, follows in the footsteps of his earlier collaborator, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. “Pedro Paramo” (2024) is a landmark novel in Latin American literature. One that influenced Gabriel Garcia Marquez to create another, relatively popular, landmark literary work, “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The novel is one of the early proponents of the artistic phenomenon known as “Magic Realism.”

In “Pedro Paramo,” Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) travels to the abandoned ruins of what once was a bustling town called Comala. Juan was conceived in this place, as this is the place where his father, the eponymous Pedro Paramo (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), lived and ruled. Pedro abandoned Juan’s mother, Dolores (Ishbel Bautista). On her deathbed,...

Netflix's Pedro Pramo is notable for several reasons. It is the first major adaptation of the classic 1955 Juan Rulfo novel a seminal masterpiece of Mexican literature that is widely considered to be the core influence on the development of magical realism since Carlos Velo's 1967 adaptation starring Psycho's John Gavin. The new movie is also the feature-length directorial debut of cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who has lensed a variety of well-known projects including Barbie, Brokeback Mountain, The Wolf of Wall Street, Amores Perros, and Broken Embraces.

Pedro Pramo

Director Rodrigo PrietoRelease Date November 6, 2024Writers Mateo GilCast Waldo Facco, Eduardo Humaran, Guillermo Nava, Paco Peralta, Tulio Villavicencio, Carlos Balderrama, Lorenzo Jacome, Jess Sida, Conrado Mercado, Jos Concepcin Macas, Martn Rodrguez Caas, Albida Villanueva, Jessica Toledo, Lorena Valds, Luis Rosete, Osvaldo Snchez, Doris Olimpia Araujo Delgado, Mariel, Fernanda Rivera, Ana Celeste, Ishbel Bautista, Gabriela Nez, Sarah Rovira, Santiago Colores, Ari Brickman,...

“Pedro Páramo” is a Mexican movie starring Manuel García-Rulfo with Tenoch Huerta, Ilse Salas, and Mayra Batalla. It is directed by Rodrigo Prieto, and written by Mateo Gil.

In 1955, Juan Rulfo penned “Pedro Páramo,” which quickly ascended to the ranks of universal literary classics, thanks in part to the literary boom of the 1950s in Hispanic America. The novel is notoriously difficult to adapt, given its evocative potential and literary poetics. A novel that, when read, seemed almost impossible to translate into another medium has now been revisited by Rodrigo Prieto, who endeavors to capture the ghostly spirit of a town steeped in death, memory, and sadness.

Staying true to Juan Rulfo’s original text, the film manages to capture the essence of the story, as well as the spectral and evocative force of this iconic novel from the last century.

Plot

A man returns to a Mexican village to learn about his father,...

"From now on, we make the laws." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for the film Pedro Páramo, the first feature directed by the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. This film just premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and will be out on Netflix to watch starting in November. The story follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo – lover, overlord, murderer. Pedro Páramo not only pays tribute to Mexico's most important literary work, it is also a tribute to love, one as powerful as it is macabre, capable of bringing the entire town of Comala and all its inhabitants down with it... Based on Juan Rulfo's masterpiece. Featuring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Pedro Paramo, Tenoch Huerta, Dolores Heredia, Ilse Salas, Héctor Kotsifakis,...

La película, protagonizada por Manuel García Rulfo y Tenoch Huerta, llega en noviembre. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el tráiler de la película Pedro Páramo, la adaptación cinematográfica de la obra cumbre de Juan Rulfo, que se estrenó mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto (TIFF).

Pedro Páramo narra el viaje cargado de ilusiones de Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) buscando la riqueza de un padre a quien no conoce. Pero al llegar a Comala, el lugar donde le dijeron que vivía, solo encuentra los atroces recuerdos de un pueblo sometido durante décadas por ese hombre, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo), condenado por su violenta cruzada en pos del poder y por la furia que despertó en él su frustrado amor por Susana San Juan (Ilse Salas). Tanto así que Juan comienza a preguntarse si sus habitantes podrían no estar vivos.

La película, que marca el debut directoral del reconocido cinefotógrafo mexicano Rodrigo Prieto,...

This piece was originally posted in 2022. We have updated the “Where to Watch” section for each film.

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Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. To celebrate, we got to thinking about some of our favorite Indies from the Hispanic world. These stories are narrative and documentary, drama and comedy, and are both harrowing and heartfelt. A little of everything, and plenty to add to your watchlist.

Prayers For The Stolen (2021)

Writer/Director: Tatiana Huezo

Producers: Nicolás Celis, Jim Stark

Starring: Guillermo Villegas, Mayra Batalla, Eileen Yañez, Alejandra Camacho

Synopsis: In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled,...

La película, protagonizada por Manuel García Rulfo y Tenoch Huerta, tiene su estreno mundial en el Festival de Cine de Toronto. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el primer teaser tráiler de la película Pedro Páramo, la adaptación cinematográfica de la obra cumbre de Juan Rulfo, que se estrena mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto (TIFF).

Pedro Páramo narra el viaje cargado de ilusiones de Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) buscando la riqueza de un padre a quien no conoce. Pero al llegar a Comala, el lugar donde le dijeron que vivía, solo encuentra los atroces recuerdos de un pueblo sometido durante décadas por ese hombre, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo), condenado por su violenta cruzada en pos del poder y por la furia que despertó en él su frustrado amor por Susana San Juan (Ilse Salas). Tanto así que Juan comienza a preguntarse si sus habitantes podrían no estar vivos.

Many of the best horror films of 2023 went unnoticed due to the dominance of popular franchises and the overwhelming release of Hollywood films. Independent and foreign horror films pushed the artistic boundaries of the genre, blending social issues, stunning visuals, and exciting gore sequences. Films like Huesera: The Bone Woman, Attachment, and The Wrath of Becky showcase unique storytelling techniques, intelligent commentary, intense action, and memorable lead performances.

With so many excellent horror films having come out in 2023, from the continuation or reboot of popular franchises to unique independent horrors, it is easy to miss some of the year's best. While Scream VI and creepy AI doll movie M3GAN found success with audiences and critics alike, many of the year's best horror quietly entered and exited their limited theater runs without much fanfare. Meanwhile, some of these inventive new horror films found themselves dropped on streaming services, only to be...

Manuel García-Rulfo has been cast in the title role of Netflix’s Spanish-language film Pedro Páramo. Shooting has begun on the Mexican film, which marks cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s directorial debut.

García-Rulfo is best known for Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, which debuted last year. He is leading Pedro Páramo opposite Tenoch Huerta, who will play Juan Preciado in the Mateo Gil adaptation of the Juan Rulfo novel.

They are joined by Ilse Salas, Mayra Batalla, Héctor Kotsifakis, Roberto Sosa, Dolores Heredia, Giovanna Zacarías, Noé Hernández and Yoshira Escárrega among others.

Rulfo’s original novel follows a man who attempts to meet his father for the first time after his mother’s death, only to find a ghost town filled with spectral figures and discovers the reckless and dangerous choices his dad made during his life.

“Our commitment to Mexican cinema takes on a whole new dimension with the start of production of Pedro Páramo,...

The anticipation Valeria feels about the approaching birth of her first child slowly turns into a sense of real fear

There are some nasty scares in this chiller from Mexican film-maker Michelle Garza Cervera who is making her feature debut: a horror film that doubles as a parable of post-partum depression, something with the creeping anxiety of Polanski’s Repulsion or Rosemary’s Baby.

Valeria (Natalia Solián) is a young woman who is longing to have a baby with her supportive partner Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) and when Valeria gets pregnant, she couldn’t be happier, or so she thinks. Her sister – married, with children in which Valeria has never taken much interest – is openly contemptuous of her conversion to the motherhood ideal, and her parents are themselves politely sceptical. A chance meaning brings Valeria into contact with an old lover, Octavia (Mayra Batalla), and Valeria is plagued with memories of the exciting,...

Stars: Natalia Solien, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández, Sonia Couoh | Written by Michelle Garza Cervera, Abia Castillo | Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera

A woman becomes increasingly afraid of her own pregnancy in this intriguing blend of folk horror and body horror. Gripping, chilling and deeply unsettling, it marks a striking horror debut for Mexican co-writer-director Michelle Garza Cervera.

The title refers to the Mexican Huesera myth, whereby a female spectre roams the desert, gathering buried bones so that it can possess the body of someone living, in a way that then frees them from their earthly torments. That said, within the context of the film, it’s essentially like a Mexican spin on Rosemary’s Baby.

Huesera: The Bone Woman begins with young Valeria (Natalia Solien) leaving gifts at the feet of a giant Virgin Mary statue, in the hopes that she will soon become pregnant by her handsome, supportive husband,...

Diverse festival notables from Hannah Ha Ha to The Blue Caftan join a spattering of specialty horror titles led by Consecration, and the U.S. theatrical debut of Gaspar Noé’s controversial Irréversible: Straight Cut.

The last is presented by Altered Innocence, whose owner Frank Jaffe spoke with Deadline about why he wanted to give Noe’s unusual 2019 director’s cut — of the Argentinian/French director’s disturbing 2002 film Irreversible — a release Stateside. “It’s a film that needs to be seen. Or made available,” he said. StudioCanal approached him twice. “They said, ‘No one is brave enough to take on this film. Will you?’” And “there is an audience for it…Tickets are selling.”

Jaffe said he first watched Irreversible, or tried to, via Netflix mail order DVD when he was 14. “My dad made me turn it off halfway through.”

It had a big impact on him. He...

"When you become a mother, you feel like you are split in two." XYZ Films has revealed the official trailer for the indie Mexican horror titled Huesera: The Bone Woman, opening in US theaters this February. It first premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival last year and has been earning rave reviews at other fests including Neuchâtel, Bucheon, Edinburgh, Bergen, Fantastic Fest, and Sitges. Huesera follows the story of Valeria, a young woman expecting her first child who becomes cursed by a sinister entity. Plunged into a terrifying and dangerous world, a group of witches emerge as her only hope for safety and salvation, but not without grave risk. Natalia Solián stars as Valeria, with a cast including Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández, Aída López, and Martha Claudia Moreno. This looks insanely scary once the trailer gets going, lots of freaky footage in that second half! That part of...

Michelle Garza Cervera‘s debut feature, Huesera is on the way early this year from XYZ Films. The film opens in theaters on February 10 followed by a VOD release on February 16.

Huesera: The Bone Woman premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival in New York in the festival’s genre-driven Midnight section and would go on to win both the Best New Narrative Director and Nora Ephron awards. Following the world premiere, Huesera: The Bone Woman won both the Blood Window Award for Best Feature Film and the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation at the internationally recognized Sitges Film Festival in Spain and the Feature Film Audience Award at the Morelia International Film Festival, Mexico’s premier film festival and one of the most important film events of the Latin-American subcontinent.

The supernatural Mexican horror feature is led by Natalia Solián in a star-turning performance as Valeria, a young...

XYZ Films, the distributor of such recent genre releases as The Mean One, Gatlopp: Hell of Game, and Prisoners of the Ghostland, has unveiled a teaser poster for the supernatural horror film Huesera: The Bone Woman – and along with the poster comes the announcement that XYZ will be giving the film a theatrical release in the United States on February 10th! A VOD release will follow on February 16th. The movie will also be available to watch on the Shudder streaming service in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand at a later date.

The feature directorial debut of Michelle Garza Cervera (who wrote the screenplay with Abia Castillo), Huesera: The Bone Woman received a lot of praise from critics and racked up awards while making the festival rounds. The film stars Natalia Solián (Zapatos Rojos) as Valeria, a young woman expecting her first child who becomes cursed by a sinister entity.

Stars: Natalia Solien, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández, Sonia Couoh | Written by Michelle Garza Cervera, Abia Castillo | Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera

A woman becomes increasingly afraid of her own pregnancy in this intriguing blend of folk horror and body horror. Gripping, chilling and deeply unsettling, it marks a striking horror debut for Mexican co-writer-director Michelle Garza Cervera.

The title – which translates roughly as Bonesetter – refers to the Mexican Huesera myth, whereby a female spectre roams the desert, gathering buried bones so that it can possess the body of someone living, in a way that then frees them from their earthly torments. That said, within the context of the film, it’s essentially like a Mexican spin on Rosemary’s Baby.

Huesera begins with young Valeria (Natalia Solien) leaving gifts at the feet of a giant Virgin Mary statue, in the hopes that she will soon become pregnant by her handsome,...

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The star of Michelle Garza Cervera’s narrative debut, Huesera, is Natalia Solián’s range of facial expressions. The actress plays Valeria Hernandez, the protagonist of this chilling body horror, with a sly, concentrated determination. See the flash of disgust in her eyes as she meets the gaze of a child playfully contorting their face at a doctor’s office. Look at her lips twitch when she learns of her pregnancy. Watch her face fall at the thought of converting her carpentry workshop into a nursery.

It’s fair to say that Valeria does not want a child. And it’s no stretch to proclaim that Huesera chiefly concerns itself with the emotional knots of her pregnancy and its eventual strains on her subsequent motherhood. But that’s only skimming the surface of Cervera’s work. Dig deeper and Huesera reveals itself to...

“When you become a mother, you feel like you are split in two,” a character says late in Michelle Garza Cervera’s “Huesera.” The words are supposed to be comforting, a reminder that the physical and emotional toll the pregnancy is taking on young Valeria (Natalia Solien) is not just natural, but expected. “And just wait for when you’re in labor! You’ll literally feel like your bones are breaking!” By the time the audience hears those words, it’s clear this Mexican body horror film is mining such fears in very literal ways for what’s a haunting and probing story about the horrors of motherhood.

Pregnancy, as it turns out, has made Valeria lose her bearings. She does in fact feel split in two and images and sounds of broken bones haunt her wherever she goes. A moment that should’ve been the culmination of the life...

For her first feature, co-writer/director Michelle Garza Cervera taps into the horrors of impending motherhood in Huesera, a gripping horror story about a young woman who is being endlessly tormented once she becomes pregnant after years of trying to start a family. Maternal fears have been explored numerous times throughout the history of genre storytelling, but I think how Cervera is able to marry this theme with Mexican folklore brings about a truly unique perspective that heightens the horror that runs rampant throughout this story that was written by both Cervera and Abia Castillo.

Huesera starts off with Valeria (Natalia Solián) making a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Guadalupe statue with her mother (Aida López) to pray as she and her husband Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) have been trying to start a family to no avail. Their trip seemingly works as Valeria finds out soon after that she is finally pregnant,...

According to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women who Run with the Wolves, the “Bone Woman,” or La Huesera, “collects and preserves that which is in danger of being lost to the world.” A Mexican myth sees her scouring the mountains and riverbeds for the remains of wolves, assembling what she finds to recreate the animal as though an ivory sculpture that will eventually become reanimated, ultimately reborn as a human woman freely laughing towards the horizon. They say she provides a glimpse of the soul when all seems to have been lost, less a monster to fear in the shadows than a necessary entity reminding us of what we still have. Thus we’re not wrong to question her place in Michelle Garza Cervera’s Huesera.

This is because Valeria (Natalia Solián) has been haunted ever since discovering she’s pregnant. She and her husband Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) are ecstatic about the news,...

Manborg: The Novelization Blasts Onto Bookshelves From Author Bret Nelson And Encyclopocalypse Publications: "Encyclopocalypse Publications, founded by Saturn and Rondo Award-winning writer/producer Mark Alan Miller is proud to add Manborg to its wildly addicting novelization series.

Manborg is penned by Bret Nelson (author of Lumber and Other Tales) from the original script by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie.

“Whenever I read about the movie, Manborg, it is noted early and often that the team at Astron 6 managed to make it for 1,000 Cad. I’d rather note, early and often, that the budget limitations were overcome by the talent and tenacity of the filmmakers.” Nelson says. “Yes, it has a garage-band feel and it’s rough around the edges. But look deeper. The wide shots of Meganet City feature vehicles and people in the backgrounds, you’d expect a pan across a still image. In dialogue, the usual low-budget,...

XYZ Films has acquired writer-director Michelle Garza Cervera’s hotly anticipated breakout feature “Huesera” for theatrical release in North America and has released the first teaser and poster for the film.

“Huesera” is one of the first slate of titles under its new distribution arm and an early pick-up ahead of the Tribeca Film Festival, where the film will world premiere.

The film follows Valeria, whose joy with becoming pregnant dissolves as she is cursed by a dark power. As danger surrounds her, she’s forced deeper into the occult, and a pact with a coven of witches may be her only hope. Valeria is played by Natalia Solián (“500 Millions of Red Shoes”), alongside Alfonso Dosal (“Narcos: Mexico”), Mayra Batalla (“Prayers for the Stolen”), Mercedes Hernández (“Identifying Features”), Aída López (“Capadocia”), and Martha Claudia Moreno.

The film is produced by Machete, Disruptiva Films, and Señor Z and is co-written by Garza Cervera and Abia Castillo.

Tribeca Film Festival 2022 - Midnight Selections: The Tribeca Film Festival 2022's Midnight selections have been announced and include a screening of The Black Phone, along with the world premiere of Travis Stevens' A Wounded Fawn:

"Attachment (Natten Har Øjne), (Denmark) – Feature Narrative, International Premiere. Maja and Leah’s new relationship is interrupted when mysterious things start happening in their London flat. It seems that Leah’s disapproving mother, who lives downstairs, is using Jewish folklore to come between them. In Danish and English with English subtitles. Directed and written by Gabriel Bier Gislason. Produced by Thomas Heinesen. With Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, Sofie Gråbøl, David Dencik. A Shudder release.

The Black Phone, (United States) – Feature Narrative, New York Premiere. Locked in a soundproof basement by a masked child killer, a teenage boy finds the possibility of hope through an unexpected and supernatural lifeline: a telephone on which he receives...

Ana and her friends live in a Mexican village menaced by gangs and people traffickers in this complex and subtle story

Tatiana Huezo’s film, adapted from the 2012 novel by Jennifer Clement, was Mexico’s official submission for the Oscars: a complex, subtle, tender and heart-rending story of a young girl’s upbringing in a village menaced by the drug cartels and people traffickers.

Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) is a kid whose careworn mum Rita (Mayra Batalla) tells her to cut her hair short and pretend to be a boy – because the gangsters like to take young girls away for reasons she needn’t explain. One girl nearby has already been taken away, her parents gone, too, and her abandoned home is eerily empty, with toys and clothes strewn all over the floor. Rita even shows Ana the shallow grave with branches over it in the back yard she...

Young girls hide from drug cartels in Prayers For The Stolen, Mexico’s powerful entry to the International Feature Oscar race. Directed by Tatiana Huezo and loosely based on Jennifer Clement’s novel, the film, which screens at AFI Fest on November 14 and releases theatrically and on Netflix in the U.S. and select regions on November 17, centers on three girls living in a remote mountaintop. Rich in atmosphere, it captures the sights and sounds of their daily lives, balancing the charming details of their childhood bonding with the terrible impact of the drug trade on their community.

Eight-year-old Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) plays with her friends Paula (Camila Gaal) and Maria (Blanca Itzel Pérez) while their mothers work in the poppy fields, bleeding the bulbs for opium. The children still have a carefree air; but their mothers rarely smile. Ana’s mother Rita (Mayra Batalla) is constantly on guard,...

Everything that happens in the small town at the center of documentarian Tatiana Huezo’s fiction debut Prayers for the Stolen runs through the Mexican drug cartel. The men have all but left to find work elsewhere, sending money to pay off collectors. The women work in the poppy fields, scratching opium bulbs to pay bills and earn a semblance of “protection” by being useful to the cause. And the soldiers stationed there act tough with guns as a superficial deterrent while cowering down in hopes of not getting shot whenever caravans of gangsters drive through. None of it truly matters, though. The cartel still comes at night to drop dead bodies and steal away young girls simply because they can. Everyone fears they’ll be next.

Based on the novel by Jennifer Clement, Huezo’s film focuses on young Ana’s (Ana Cristina Ordóñez as a pre-teen and González...

The trailer for Prayers for the Stolen has just been released. The film is Mexico’s official submission for International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. You can check out the film’s new trailer above and the poster for the film below.

In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled and dress up as women when no one is watching. In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hideout in time. Liberally adapted from Jennifer Clement’s eponymous 2014 novel.

About The Film Genre: Drama Running Time: 110 minutes MPAA Rating: R (for some...

"What do you think will happen when one of us is suddenly gone?" Netflix has debuted an official US trailer for the acclaimed Mexican drama titled Prayers for the Stolen in English, originally known as Noche de Fuego (which translates directly to Night of Fire) in Spanish. This first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and recently played at both the New York & London Film Festivals. Prayers for the Stolen is about life in a solitary town nestled in the mountains that is at war, seen through the eyes of three girls on their path to adolescence. "In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn't make it to their hideout in time." Starring Mayra Batalla, Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Marya Membreño, Norma Pablo,...

After winning the Best International Feature Film Oscar a few years ago with Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Mexico has another notable contender this year. Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival this summer and recently played at NYFF and BFI London, was picked up by Netflix and will now arrive next month. Ahead of the release, the new trailer has arrived.

Backed by Roma producer Nicolás Celis along with Jim Stark, the film is set in a mountain town in Mexico where three young girls take over the houses of those who have fled. Led by Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Marya Membreño, Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo, Eileen Yáñez, and Memo Villegas, see the trailer below.

Prayers for the Stolen comes to theaters in November and hits Netflix on November 17.

The post U.S. Trailer for Mexico's Oscar Entry Prayers for the Stolen first appeared on The Film Stage.

Mexico has become the latest country to make its submission to this year’s International Oscar race, selecting Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers For The Stolen.

The pic debuted at Cannes this year, receiving a special mention in the Un Certain Regard program. The film was also a multi-award-winner at the San Sebastian and Athens film festivals. Netflix picked up rights and will release in select theaters and online in November.

Vaguely based on Jennifer Clement’s 2014 novel, the film is set In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, where the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled and dress up as women when no one is watching. In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts.

Mexico has witnessed over 80,000 disappearances since former President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drug cartels in 2006. A quarter of the missing are women — the majority of them teenage girls. “Prayers for the Stolen,” Mexican-Salvadorian director Tatiana Huezo’s first narrative feature, takes place amidst this national nightmare, depicting the dangers and deep-seated fears that families have long endured. Told through the lens of three girls as they grow up in a rural town in the Guerrero mountains, Huezo’s film is , and where the adults are as powerless as the children.

As a documentary filmmaker, Huezo has immersed herself in communities across Mexico and her native El Salvador to show the human consequences of their seemingly endless wars. In “Tempestad” (2016), she tells the story of two women exploited by the drug war in Mexico, and here she brings the same harrowing overtone of urgency to her fiction debut.

“Prayers for the Stolen...

Tatiana Huezo’s debut fictional film premiered in Un Certain Regard.

Netflix has acquired the US, the majority of European territories and Latin America on Cannes selection Prayers For The Stolen which premiered in Un Certain Regard last month.

The streamer has picked up Tatiana Huezo’s film for most of Europe excluding France, Italy and UK. The title will be unbranded in certain countries.

Prayers For The Stolen marks the first fictional feature from noted Salvadoran-Mexican documentarian Huezo and plays out against the backdrop of cartel violence.

The story centres on the journey into adolescence of three girls who...

The unforgettable final shot of Tatiana Huezo’s last film, the songlike documentary “Tempestad,” is the silhouette of a figure swimming in blue water – an amputee, missing one of her legs from the knee down. Combining grace and trauma, the image is also striking because of its perspective: She’s floating but, seen from below, from down in the soundless depths just where the water starts to get murky, it looks like she’s flying. With Un Certain Regard title “Prayers for the Stolen,” .

Seen through Huezo’s eyes, the hollow in the earth that Rita (Mayra Batalla) and her pretty 8-year-old daughter Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) are digging in the ground near their scruffy house’s front door is a grave and a womb, a trap and a refuge. It is designed to fit Ana’s little frame snugly, and the girl has already been...

"What should we do if one of us has to leave suddenly?" The Match Factory has released an official trailer for an emotional Mexican drama titled Prayers for the Stolen in English, originally known as Noche de Fuego (which translates directly to Night of Fire) in Spanish. This is premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, one of the few films from Latin America and one of the few films directed by a woman at this year's festival. Prayers for the Stolen is about life in a solitary town nestled in the mountains that is at war, as seen through the eyes of three young girls on their path to adolescence. "In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn't make...

Heading into this year’s Guadalajara’s Co-Production Meetings, the team behind Michelle Garza’s maternal horror flick “Huesera” has shared with Variety news of a new minority co-producer, choreographer and key casting details.

“Huesera” is produced by Paulina Villaviencio from Mexico’s Disruptiva Films and Edher Campos of Machete Producciones. Villaviencio’s recently produced Simon Hernández‘s 2019 Sitges Documenta Award-winner “La venganza de Jairo,” documenting the final shoot of Colombian genre master Jairo Pinilla.

A recent Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences addition, Campos’ impressive resume includes Cannes awarded fare such as Michael Rowe’ Cannes Camera d’Or-winner “Leap Year” and Diego Quemada-Díez’s “La Jaula de Oro,” which scooped A Certain Talent award for its leads in 2013. Most recently, he produced Heidi Ewing’s Sundance Audience Award and Next Innovator Award-winner “I Carry You with Me.”

Lorena Ugarteche from Peru’s Señor Z will co-produce on the...

Mexico’s film industry appears healthy, but the question is for how long. In 2019, Mexican president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador decimated festival funding. There’s a fear that, as the economy contracts, so will its tax credits, the main source of film sector finance, says Pimienta’s Nicolas Celis, a producer on “Roma.”

Such fears have seen the country’s top producers re-engineering operations: many, such as Piano, Woo Films, Pablo Cruz at Canana and El Estudio have moved into TV production. Some, such as Panorama, have launched more commercial, Ott platform-friendly slates.

Companies are also aiming to tap more regular international co-financing, such as Pimienta’s first-look deal with Exile and Endeavor Content, while Piano has expanded into Colombia and Germany and El Estudio has launched bases in Los Angeles and Madrid.

Above all, many are looking to produce with top talent inside and outside Mexico. Piano’s slate...