Maria Full of Grace | Review

First-time director puts a human face onto a newspaper headline.

The thought of illegal narcotics entering a country usually elicits thoughts of speed boat pick-ups off the Florida Keys or a cargo truck delivery contains fruits and vegetables which are magically worth more than their normal market value. The lack of choices for people in improvished Latin American countries and the allure of huge sums of money, – more than a worker earns in a year’s work often overrides any of the potential dangers of the mule business. For many, this pellet migration is a venture worth the risk.

This Sundance Audience award winner offers more than just an observation about the world coffee bean capital nation’s other export. This is an in-depth, penetrating view of one victim among thousands who become illegal modes of transportation for a capitalist supply-and-demand system.

Set in peasant country – in the small city of Bogotá, Columbia – this is about survival and to seize an opportunity once it exists. First time actress Catalina Sandino Moreno plays Maria, – a head strong, inexperienced young protagonist who’s juggling her life between hope and despair. Marston explores her difficult plight through the character’s honest emotions – literally digging inside the belly of the matter letting the narrative pick-up the driving force behind the tough choices she makes. If Maria feels trapped it’s probably because she’s got one in the oven, because she quit her job in a place where there are no jobs and the routine of coming home everyday to a family with their own problems becomes a little overbearing. One wrong turn later and a simple proposal becomes a terrifying ordeal.

Made with next to nothing – Maria Full of Grace contains the same after-affect as City of God. The film’s stark realism and the treatment of the emotionally terrifying journey reach for the viewer’s jugular — Joshua Marston does a riveting job of factually presenting the harrowing process of being a mule. The director details all the technical facts, but is more interested in the treatment of the film’s main character. Marston doesn’t condemn his protagonist, nor is he judgmental towards his heroine or the industry itself. Moreno’s performance brings the required spirit to the character – she contributes enormously to the believability of her character and audiences will remember each significant step that this young girl takes. Jim Denault’s colorful cinematography captures the Latin American roots of the film and the handheld camera gives the entire process a sort of backpack appeal –where the viewer becomes so attached to Maria’s dilemma that they hope that her course gets steered in the right way. While the film’s end doesn’t do for it what it did for a film like Since Otar Left, this minor hiccup doesn’t deter from the overall quality of this drama.

Filled with many tense moments, this drama puts a human face on desperation and despair.

Maria Full of Grace is viewing material not to be missed.

Rating 4 stars