Hari Sama's Despertar del polvo / Awakening Dust (pictured) and Pedro González-Rubio's Inori were the top winners at the 2nd edition of the Riviera Maya Film Festival which took place in Mexico. Both films competing in the Mexican Platform section of the festival received the Kukulkan Award consisting of $300,000 Mexican pesos, (about $24,600 USD) for each film, to be used in the promotion and distribution.
Hari Sama's third feature film (Sin ton ni sonia, El sueño de Lu / Lu's Dream) is a tale of corruption, violence and inexorable fate. The film tells the story of a homeless man who runs into Rosa, an old acquaintance that asks him to help her godson, who has been accused by corrupted cops of sexual abuse and murder.
Shot in Japan, Pedro González-Rubio's Inori tells the story of a small Japanese mountain village, which was cheerful and full of activity, but these days is a desolate place, inhabited exclusively by elderly people.
In the rivieraLAB section of the festival, dedicated to supporting work in progress, Matías Meyer's Yo and Manuel Ferrari's De la noche a la mañana / From Night Till Day were the winners of the rivieraLAB/Co-Prodution Award consisting of $200,000 Mexican pesos (about $16,400 USD) for each project. La última película / The Last Film by Raya Martín and Mark Peranson, and Feguibox by Rubén Monsuy and Gabriel Amdur were the winners of the rivieraLAB/Work in Progress Award with also a cash prize of $200,000 Mexican pesos.
The second edition of the Riviera Maya Film Festival took place April 21-27 at Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Morelos and Holbox in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
