LA ZONA
LA ZONA

Winner of the Fipresci Critics Prize at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival

Rodrigo Plá's feature début is a taut social thriller that brutally reveals the dangers of the growing polarisation between the have and have-nots in Mexico - and indeed - so many other Latin American countries.
Alejandro (Daniel Tovar) is part of the privileged minority. The teenager lives with his parents, Daniel (Daniel Giménez Cacho) and Mariana (Maribel Verdú) in 'La Zona', an enclosed neighborhood monitored by closed-circuit cameras. Ruled by fear, the residents have essentially renounced their privacy and trapped themselves in an exclusive prison. However, when a group of disadvantaged teenagers manages to break in, that security blanket is threatened and the residents reveal how far they will go to protect their community. And when Alejandro discovers one of the burglars, Miguel (Alan Chávez), hiding in his family's basement, he unexpectedly finds himself torn between loyalty to his family and friends and his empathy for a poor petty thief and suspected murderer.
Plá's film is a remarkable study of two Mexicos, mutually suspicious of each other, and it offers a telling warning of the dangers of segregation in all its shapes and forms.

Spain/Mexico, Thriller, 97 minutes, 2007. (18+)
Director: Rodrigo Plá
With: Daniel Tovar, Maribel Verdú,
Daniel Jiménez-Cacho