Screened as part of NZIFF 2018

Virus Tropical 2017

Directed by Santiago Caicedo

A deftly made, delightfully illustrated, femme-focused animated film from Colombia about growing up in a decidedly unconventional family. Winner of the Audience Award for foreign films at SXSW 2018.

Colombia In Spanish with English subtitles
97 minutes B&W / DCP

Director/Producer

Screenplay

Enrique Lozano
,
Powerpaola. Based on the graphic novel by Powerpaola

Editors

Santiago Caicedo
,
Simón Hernández
,
Jorge Vallejo

Art director

Powerpaola

Music

Adriana García Galán

Voices

María Cecilia Sánchez (Paola
,
teen)
,
Martina Toro (Paola
,
child)
,
Alejandra Borrero (Hilda)
,
Diego León Hoyos (Uriel)
,
Mara Gutiérrez (Patty
,
adult)
,
María Parada (Patty
,
child)
,
Camila Valenzuela (Claudia)
,
Javiera Valenzuela (Chavela)
,
Zoraida Duque (grandmother)

Festivals

Berlin
,
SXSW 2018

Elsewhere

Based on an autobiographical graphic novel by Colombian cartoonist Powerpaola (real name Paola Gaviria), this appealing and affecting animated film reflects her experiences growing up in a family dominated by strong-willed women. The intricately detailed, doodle-like style of Powerpaola’s black-and-white illustrations is brought to vivid life by animator Santiago Caicedo.

From Quito in Ecuador to Cali in Colombia and even to the Galapagos Islands, the film follows Paola’s life through the late 20th century, from conception to adulthood. An unexpected ‘gift’ who arrives after her mother has had her tubes tied (with doctors misdiagnosing her pregnancy as a ‘virus tropical’), Paola causes quite the upheaval in her family. She is doted on but occasionally dropped by her oldest sister, Claudia, and tormented by jealous middle sister Patty. Paola’s father, a defrocked priest, decides to return to the cloth, leaving Paola’s mother to raise her three daughters on her own.    

The story flows in a nimble true-to-life fashion devoid of any whiff of screenwriter’s contrivance, delivering an authentic and intimate portrait of life growing up in a family in flux. — MM