Southern Views: Latin American Film Festival

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NOTHING SPOTLIGHTS the cultural complexities of our neighbors to the south quite like the AFI Latin American Film Festival. For two decades, the popular film series has treated local audiences to the best new cinematic offerings the region's silver screen has to offer.

As in previous years, the 2009 edition of the festival features an impressive lineup of award winners, festival-circuit favorites, local box-office breakouts and debut works by the hottest new directors. And this year's festival promises to be the biggest yet, featuring more than 30 films from 18 Latin American countries, as well as Spain and Portugal.

The festival kicks off with a bang Wednesday with Mexico's "I'm Going to Explode (Voy a explotar)," emerging director Gerardo Naranjo's stylish drama about Roman and Maru, two troubled 15-year-olds on a Bonnie and Clyde-like quest in search of meaning.

The epic teen-angst film, Naranjo's third feature, was a favorite at last year's New York Film Festival, winning over audiences with its radiant colors, moving music and coy references to the French New Wave.

Uruguay has the coming-of-age category covered with its quirky offerings "Gigante," Adrian Biniez's multi-prize-winning picture about a shy supermarket security guard's distant love connection, and "Acne," Federico Veiroj's deadpan debut feature about a young man's budding obsession with the opposite sex.

Latin American women come on strong in this year's fest as well. A pair of thrillers from Spain and Argentina finds brave women matching cojones with their male counterparts for power and prestige — and, in the case of Argentinean director Pablo Trapero's "Lion's Den (Leonera)," survival.

Trapero's fifth feature explores one women's struggle to adjust to prison after waking up bleary-eyed one morning with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet.

Lovers of crime dramas will feast on Agustin Diaz Yanes' "Just Walking (Solo quiero caminar)," which finds the wife of an abusive drug kingpin challenging her domineering hubby for sacks of ill-begotten loot and sweet revenge.

And not to be overlooked is Peru's "Oblivion," Lima-based documentary filmmaker Heddy Honigmann's loving expose of her hometown's underserved citizens.

» AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring; Sept. 23-Oct. 12; 301-495-6700, afi.com/silver. (Silver Spring)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo courtesy IFC Films