Even though GIFF offers plenty of activities you won’t find in most film festivals, it is still a film festival above everything else, and as such it calls for films to compete in an Official Selection. This year’s Official Feature Film Selection features a selection of Mexican films (there are seven competing this year, including a co-production with Belgium) and a selection of international films (nine are competing, two from the Netherlands, two from Argentina, one from Germany, one from Jordan, one from the United States, one from Costa Rica and one from Turkey, which is this year’s Guest Country of Honor). The Official Selection also features Fiction, Documentary and Animation short films from all over the world, as well as a short film section from Mexico and one specifically from Guanajuato.
Mexico’s Official Selection of Feature Films include La Delgada Línea Amarilla directed by
Celso R. García, a film about five men whose job is to Paint the yellow line son the highway, the challenges they face and the relationship they build as they Paint 1 kilometer an hour. Anwar Safa’s El Jeremías tells the story of a boy from a family of low resources and a poor education who finds out he’s a genius. Gust Van den Berghe’s Lucifer (co-produced with Belgium) tells of the demon Lucifer who comes to a Mexican village to mess with the lives of the people who live there. Bernardo Arellano’s El Comienzo del Tiempo tells of a couple in their 90s who have to do what they must to survive when their pensions are suspended.
The International Feature Film Selection includes Der Bunker by Nikias Chryssos (Germany), about a young student who, after looking for a quiet place to finish an assignment, becomes the teacher of a home-schooled boy who lives in a bunker mansion. Prince by Sam de Jong (Netherlands) is about a troubled teenager trying to win over the girl of his dreams by becoming a bad-ass. Mustang by Deniz Gamze Erguven (Turkey) tells the tale of five sisters in a Turkish village who become involved in a scandal when an innocent playtime with some local boys is confused for something else and these girls become slaves in their own home. These are only a few of the stories that will be experienced at this year’s Guanajuato Film Festival.
