Berlin-based Films Boutique has launched international sales on leading Mexican filmmaker Everardo González’s latest documentary A Wolfpack Called Ernesto, which world premiered at the weekend at Hot Docs in Toronto.
Films Boutique has also co-produced the doc, which is backed by TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish language streamer ViX and N+ Docs, the documentary division of the Mexican news content producer N+. The film is supported by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund.
A Wolfpack Called Ernesto focuses on the impact of gang violence on young people in Mexico City, with Everardo capturing the daily lives and the testimonies of innocent children through to young sicarios. It follows the paths of the youths collectively named “Ernesto” - victims as well as sicarios - who have had access to a gun, used it to kill, and become part of a crime organization. For the documentary, González attached cameras to the backs of the youngsters, allowing the teenagers to open the door to their world while showing the landscape of arms trafficking in Mexico.
Gonzalez’s 2017 doc Devil’s Freedom (La Libertad Del Diablo) played at multiple festivals and was awarded the Amnesty International Film Prize at the Berlinale and won the Fenix Film Award and Mexico’s Arial Award for best documentary. His credits also include 2015’s El Paso, 2011’s Cuates De Australia and The Open Sky, 2007’s The Old Thieves and 2003’s The Pulque Song.
A Wolfpack Called Ernesto is produced by Inna Payán of Animal de Luz and Roberto Garza of Artegios and coproduced by Films Boutique’s Jean-Christophe Simon, Bord Cadre’s Dan Wechsler, Sovereign Films’ Andreas Roald and Jamal Zeinal-Zade, and N+Docs’ Marie Jeanne Kushfe and Dayana Rodrigues.
González said: “I am the father of a teenager and the fact that Mexico has denied the future to many boys of his generation never ceases to infuriate me. Imagining that the face of death in my country can resemble what moves me the most is the main motivation to make this movie.”
Films Boutique’s Jean-Christophe Simon said: “Like the work of masters such as Rithy Panh or Joshua Oppenheimer, Everardo is digging with courage and force the questions of violence in Mexico and try to understand how children can become killers. As in the previous works of Everardo we can see and hear things we have never seen before in a very powerful and moving film.”
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