“There is a fierce, high seriousness to the way that Gallardo is addressing the buried, denied crimes of the Mexican state and the Mexican ruling classes.” - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“A visually stunning, thoughtful, and profoundly unsettling study of the impact of male violence.” - Jonathan Holland, Screen International
February 28 at 6pm | Of all the films in this series, ROBE OF GEMS most closely corresponds to author Sayak Valencia’s concerns that the cartels have fundamentally altered the look and dynamics of violence—and capitalism—in contemporary Mexico. Maria (Antonia Olivares), maid to the wealthy Isabel (Nailea Norvind), is preoccupied with the disappearance of her sister and caught up in the power games of narco Adan (Juan Daniel García Treviño), which cycles back to Isabel. Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, ROBE OF GEMS explores the affective fallout of what Valencia calls the “endriago (monstrous) subject... the entrepreneurs of gore capitalism... amalgam of economic entrepreneur, political entrepreneur, and violence specialist.”
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Silver Bear Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival
Gore Capitalism Lecture Series: Professor Daniel R. Quiles presents Gore Capitalism, a lecture series centered on the everyday “horror” we are living through and how the individual gets caught in uneven wars between classes, races, genders, sexual orientations, healthy and sick, states and citizens. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Art History, Theory and Criticism, and Film, Video, New Media, and Animation departments. View full series here.
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