Chicana from Chicago

Amat Escalante is now three for three as he will be taking his third film, HELI to next week’s Cannes, but this is his first time in Official Competition.  The screenplay for Heli was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters lab 2010 where it won the NHK Filmmaker Award.  At that stage the logline was described: “In a small Mexican town, where most citizens work for an automobile assembly plant or the local drug cartel, Heli is confronted with police corruption, drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, love, guilt and revenge in the search for his father who has mysteriously disappeared.”  Escalante is a Carlos Reygadas protege of sorts, he worked as Assistant Director on Battle of Heaven and they are boutique powerhouse collective through producer, Jaime Romandia’s Mantarraya Films.  A die hard, impactful formalistic filmmaker, the weight of his films comes from audaciously rigid framing, startling compositions, and magnetic usually non pro actor performances.