The Mexican film The Other Side of the Wall / Al otro lado del muro the debut feature by Spanish filmmaker Pau Ortiz was announced as the winner of the Best International Feature Documentary Award at the 2017 edition of the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, with a cash prize of $10,000.
Produced by María Nova López, Emiliano Altuna, Tatiana García, and Carlos Rossini, The Other Side of the Wall tells the story of teenagers Rocío and Ale, who after their mother is sentenced to 10 years in a Mexican prison on questionable charges, are left with no choice but to play the role of both mother and father to their two younger siblings. As Honduran immigrants living in Mexico, they lack work papers, making opportunities for employment scarce. While the oldest, Ale, tries his best to make rational decisions for the good of the family, the pressure mounts.
Finances are tight, his girlfriend is expecting and his sister Rocío is testing her teenage boundaries, wanting less responsibility and more freedom. Fearing she may get herself into trouble, Ale clamps down and tensions between them escalate. As apprehensions about the future intensify, Ale must make the difficult decision between keeping the family together in Mexico or breaking them apart to cross the US border for work.
Additionally, in the Canadian feature competition, the documentary film Resurrecting Hassan by the Chilean-Canadian director Carlo Guillermo Proto received the Special Jury Prize, with a cash prize of $1,000.
The 2017 edition of the Hot Docs film festival took place April 27-May 7 in Toronto, Canada.
