Maria Full of Grace

Theatrical Release Date: 2004 07 16 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 5051429700472

Studio: Icon

Summary: New York-based writer/director Joshua Marston makes his feature film debut with the coming-of-age drama Maria Full of Grace, with a script developed at the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Maria Alvarez, a teenager living in Bogot?, Colombia. Along with most of the other able-bodied people in her community, she works a perilous job in a flower plantation. She wants to quit, but her large family depends on her meager salary. One day, Maria meets a smooth-talking young man named Franklin. He offers her a business proposition to make some money and travel. However, the task involves her acting as a drug mule and smuggling heroin into the U.S. Maria Full of Grace premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Audience Award – Sundance Film Festival 3rd Place – Slamdance International Film Festival Alfred Bauer Prize – Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear for Best Actress – Berlin International Film Festival In Competition – Deauville Film Festival Best Foreign Film – National Board of Review Best Actress – Independent Spirit Awards Best Director – Independent Spirit Awards Best First Screenplay – Independent Spirit Awards Best Picture – Independent Spirit Awards Best Supporting Actress – Independent Spirit Awards New Generation Award – Los Angeles Film Critics Association New Generation Award – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best New Filmmaker (Runner-up) – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Foreign Language Film – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best First Feature – Toronto Film Critics Association Best Actress – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film – Broadcast Film Critics Association Most Promising Performer – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – London Film Critics Association Best First Film – New York Film Critics Circle

Maria Full of Grace

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 02/16/2009

Runtime: 101 Minutes

Region: PCM stereo

Josh Ralske

Joshua Marston's dramatically potent Maria Full of Grace could easily have been a preachy issue film, but the filmmaker's eye and ear for authentic detail and believable characterization, the exquisite lead performance of Catalina Sandina Moreno (in her film debut), and the typically crisp, immediate handheld camerawork of genius cinematographer Jim Denault (Boys Don't Cry) make the film an unusually tough and gritty slice of underworld life. The horrific situation in which Maria finds herself stems organically from her steely temperament and her desperate, unfulfilled circumstances. Moreno's assured performance conveys both Maria's tough willfulness and her underlying uncertainty. Marston's film is at its strongest in focusing on the small, fascinating details of Maria's life, as she gives up demeaning sweatshop labor at a rose plantation to enter the drug trade. The scenes of heroin being processed and ingested for transport by Maria in her newfound occupation are darkly fascinating, as are the excruciatingly tense scenes that follow on the airplane, and at the airport after Maria arrives in New York. Some elements of the coming-of-age story are familiar, but Marston's attention to detail and the film's effective naturalistic presentation make it all very fresh and gripping. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Eddie Trucco  Actor 
Evangelina Morales  Actor 
Maria Consuelo Perez  Actor 
Mateo Suarez  Actor 
Oscar Bejarano  Actor 
Victor Macias  Actor 
Monique Curnen  Actor 
Rodrigo Sanchez Borhorquez  Actor 
Ana Maria Acosta  Actor 
Osvaldo Plasencia  Actor 
Charles Albert Patino  Actor 
Ada Vergara De Solano  Actor 
Selenis Leyva  Actor 
Juana Guarderas  Actor 
Singkhan Bandit  Actor 
Virgina Ariza  Actor 
Hugo Ferro  Actor 
Lourdes Martin  Actor 
Patrick Rameau  Actor 
Fabricio Suarez  Actor 
Juan Porras Hincapie  Actor 
Paul S. Mezey  Producer 
Leonardo Heiblum  Composer (Music Score) 
Jacobo Lieberman  Composer (Music Score) 
Joshua Marston  Director 
Joshua Marston  Screenwriter 
Catalina Sandino Moreno  Actor 
Yenny Paola Vega  Actor 
Guilied Lopez  Actor 
John Alex Toro  Actor 
Patricia Rae  Actor 
Wilson Guerrero  Actor 
Jaime Osorio Gomez  Actor 
Johanna Andrea Mora  Actor 
Orlando Tobon  Actor 
Fernando Velasquez  Actor 

Country: USA