La Vendedora De Rosas - cinema verité in Medellín

For you film lovers........

La Vendedora De Rosas - 1998 Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival

In the two days leading up to Christmas, a thirteen year-old Colombian street kid tries to sell roses for money. Surrounded by a group of fellow runaways and orphans who all get by through robbery, prostitution, and drugs, Monica hopes that there will at least be some sort of party to attend over the holidays. Victor Gaviria's look at life on the streets of Latin America is fascinating, bleak and an uncompromising look at an often forgotten population.

The Rose Seller by Colombian filmmaker Victor Gavaira follows the lives of street urchins as they work out a tough existence in the slums of Medellin, Colombia over a 48 hour period at Christmas time.

Thirteen-year-old Monica lives with a spirited group of teenage runaway girls. They sell roses to survive. It is not easy, particularly as they are still unhardened to street life like some of the older, more experienced kids. But they are moving up in the world, ripping off motorists sitting at traffic lights, experimenting with prostitution and developing glue-sniffing habits. Glue-sniffing, the cheapest high on the market, is happening everywhere in this film. The children are snorting and talking glue throughout. "You smell like glue," says Monica before kissing her drug-dealing pubescent boyfriend. "You're completely glued," another tries to tell her friend when she starts hallucinating. "You're doing too much glue". "You've nicked my stash of glue". And so on.

Conditions may be deplorable, but director Victor Gaviria's slab of cinema veritee avoids sermonising, glamorising or melodrama, simply allowing his young cast and events to speak for themselves.

However, while the camera's cold, all-seeing eye is convincing, and all the more unsettling for that, the film at times seems rudderless and sprawling. The narrative encompasses an unwieldy number of tales of personal tragedy, and the dialogue falls so fast and furiously that just following the subtitles is hard enough work. You never really get under the skin of any one of the characters.

While the subject matter is depressing, it is not without colour. It takes place against a backdrop of Christmas celebrations, with bright lights, music, and colourful catholic iconography. Fireworks crackle and whizz throughout the night, hiding the sound of murderous gunfire. The narrative is also interspersed with a number of glue-induced, hallucination sequences that provide some, but not a great deal of, insight into the childrens' sense of vulnerablility. While this is a film of some socio-political force, the lack of narrative focus tests one's patience and doesn't ever attain the potency that the real life tragedy deserves.
---------------
The young girl Leidy Tabares gives an incredible performance in the video above, especially for a young non-actor.

This is a window into the world far removed from the sterile and safety of El Poblado, the Medellin that struggles to survive on a daily basis, yet somehow manages to see another day.

Has anyone seen this movie?

It's not available in the US yet.

By Medellin Traveler on Apr 6, 2008, 06:26 in Friendly Talkzone.

droble77 says on Apr 6, 2008, 08:14:

Actually it is available, and for under $10 at Amazon.com

I got it last year but it might have been through eBay, can't remember now. The Amazon page states a release date of Nov. 2003 but maybe it was out of print/discontinued for awhile. . . ??

http://www.amazon.com/Vendedora-Rosas-Lady-Tabares/dp/B0000D0YX4/ref=s...

Medellin Traveler says on Apr 6, 2008, 08:17:

droble77,
Thanks!

What did you think of the film?

Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com

Medellin Traveler says on Apr 6, 2008, 08:44:

Duh!

I was just searching through my DVD's and found a few bootleg copies of Colombian movies I purchased in El Centro on one of my trips. Several of the DVD's have 5 movies each.... and guess what? Yep. There is a copy of La Vendedora De Rosas on one of the DVD's along with Rosario Tijeras, Maria Full of Grace, El Rey, and La Sierra.

I just checked to see if it will play on my laptop, it does. It;s a lousy bootleg copy, probably shot off a TV screen. In anycase, I will probably watch it sometime today.

Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com

robi666 says on Apr 6, 2008, 08:54:

It is a good movie. You know about the sad story of the main actress, isn't it M_T?

"I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders, where life is lived in the present."

Catfish35 says on Apr 6, 2008, 09:17:

Robi,
I understand she is now in prison with her baby doing a murder charge ?

"I refuse to have a battle of intelligence with an unarmed person, therefore I will just speak as the simpleton you have come to love"

robi666 says on Apr 6, 2008, 09:19:

Yes, there was a thread a while ago on here.
Before, I was told she was dead after going out prison. It appeared to be false, though.

Last i could find about her on the web:
http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/168050.asp?id=168050

tejasmarcos says on Apr 6, 2008, 10:30:

jeez......

hey fish, got your email. i'll drop you a line this afternoon.

god is in your head

Medellin Traveler says on Apr 6, 2008, 12:06:

robi666,
Thanks for the info.

It's sad, this young girl was selling flowers at discotecas around town, and one day she is discovered and given an opportunity to do something most people never dream of doing, she seems to have done a great job in the role, which is what cinema verite is all about, in the end, she was not playing a role, but living life as she had always done, only this time it was in front of a movie camera.

Sad, but that is the life for many in Medellin.

As I watched the trailer, listening to the dailogue, it reminded me so much of the people I meet in the barrios I have visited up in them hills.

I'm gonna watch it tonight.

Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com

droble77 says on Apr 6, 2008, 19:18:

Hi, MDE Traveler

Well, I'm back from my Sunday outings. :) I thought it was a pretty good movie. Call me sick in the head, but I actually thought much of the dialogue between the street urchins was funny in that it seemed so true to that kind of life. The movie didn't wallow in the misery which is IMHO what gave it some life to what otherwise would have been a too depressing movie. And I thought the ending was effective, even if from a certain viewpoint it would be considered contrived/corny. . .