The Mexican film Robe of Gems / Manto de gemas, the debut feature by Bolivian-born director Natalia López Gallardo has won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 72nd annual edition of the Berlin Film Festival. The director accepted the award and dedicated the award to the people of the state of Morelos in Mexico.
Starring Nailea Norvind (Chronic, After Lucia), Antonia Olivares, Aida Roa, and Daniel García (I'm No Longer Here), the film tells the story of Isabel and her family, who take possession of her mother’s villa in rural Mexico where they reconnect with their long-time domestic worker Maria. But things have never been the same since Isabel’s mother left.
Once so well looked after, the house is now bare and neglected. Isabel and her husband are growing apart, and their children are increasingly worried about them. Maria’s sister’s disappearance has left her family in distress and forced her to engage in criminal activities with Adan, the son of a local policeman. Isabel decides to go on a dangerous quest, neglecting her own children, as well as her housekeeper’s warning that she does not understand how things work in Mexico’s poorer regions.
Mexican-Bolivian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor López Gallard was born in La Paz, Bolivia in 1980. After studying film in Mexico, she edited films by Lisandro Alonso, Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante. Her short film En el cielo como en la tierra screened in the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes in 2007. She currently heads the Splendor Omnia post-production studio located near Mexico City.
