Our Lady of the Assasins

Starring: German Jaramillo, Anderson Ballestros

RS: Not Rated

Drama

Our Lady of the Assassins brings director Barbet Schroeder (Reversal of Fortune) back to Colombia, where he was raised, to find the city of Medell¡n filled with drug trafficking and youth gangs. So in filming Fernando Vallejo's novel about a fiftyish gay writer returning to this city after three decades, Schroeder shot guerrilla-style on high-definition video to move quickly on the dangerous streets. Fernando (German Jaramillo), the writer who claims to have slept with more than 1,000 boys, finds an unlikely love in teen gangbanger Alexis (Anderson Ballestros) and takes the killer on a tour of the city he knew in his youth. Setting it against the backdrop of a wanton city under siege, Schroeder crafts a film of whiplash urgency.

PETER TRAVERS
(RS 879 - October 11, 2001)