BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Sept. 11, 2009
"Oveja Negra ("Black Sheep"), an unexpected success that won over critics at international film festivals this year, is set to hit the big screens this weekend across Mexico City theaters.
The Spanish-language film, which premieres tonight, is a subtle comedy, suspenseful drama and a charismatic love story set in a tranquil, rural ranching village in the State of Mexico's south.
In his feature film debut, director and screenwriter Humberto Hinojosa, 27, offers a contemporary story with an equally fresh cast, as the film's four protagonists are played by actors in their first leading roles.
"We had to gain many people's confidence at first," Hinojosa told The News. "But [age] helped me to give the film the energy that it has. It's like a contagiousness of will and desire that spread to all the contributors, and so the film feels very contemporary and new."
Filmed in the town of Malinalco, just south of Mexico City, the movie borrows heavily from Hinojosa's experiences and memories from growing up around such ranching communities.
The movie begins during the night, when an unknown hitchhiker hops into the cab of a sheep-hauling truck. He begins to recount a story, and the imagery soon flips to a sunny, lazy day on a pasture where brothers José (Christian Vázquez) and Kumbia (Rodrigo Corea) lay in the shade.
Both fed up with their directionless jobs of herding sheep and sick of mistreatment from the wealthy ranchers, the brothers start to hatch a vindictive scheme to leave their undesirable pasts behind them. Meanwhile, their boss's son Jerónimo (Iván Arana) develops a plan of his own to frame the brothers and get them off the ranch.
A second rivalry develops between José and Jerónimo when an incredibly coquettish María (Ximena Romo) taunts each character with batted lashes and passionate kisses. Mishaps and ill-fated adventures follow as both boys' attempts to bring each other down become increasingly more complicated. In the end, friendship and loyalty prove to the most important virtues of the film's moral story.
The comedy-drama found unanticipated success in March at the International Film Festival of Guadalajara. The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) chose the film as the festival's opera prima, or best first film by a director, and the public voted "Oveja Negra" the festival's best film.
It was also selected for the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, the only Spanish-language film out of 14 in the July competition.
Hinojosa said that watching "Oveja Negra" screen for the first time in Guadalajara was the most exciting moment throughout the entire two-year filmmaking process.
"It was exactly when I saw the movie with people and saw their reactions with such good results. I suffered when they did, I laughed when they did; that was the most emotional moment," he said.
The film is also a very personal project, he explained, inspired by his friends, the people in his life and the ranching villages from Hinojosa's childhood.
"Many of these characters are heroes that already exist. I took these characters and I fictionalized them," the director said, who is already working on two upcoming film projects.
"I lov iu" is a romantic comedy following a young deaf man whose lip-reading skills hit a wall when he falls in love with an English-speaking girl. He is also producing "El Último Día ("The Last Day"), a terror and suspense film directed by Pablo Dávila Chapoy, he said.
Hinojosa has previously taken home awards for his short films at the Kinoki Festival, the La Feisal Argentina Festival and the Trieste, Italy Film Festival.
"Oveja Negra," a Tigre Pictures production, is set to premiere tonight at Cinépolis, Cinemex, Cinemark and MMCinemas theaters and will be distributed by Gussi Artecinema throughout the country.
For more details, visit www. ovejanegralapelicula.com
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