Navajazo (pictured), the directorial feature debut by Mexican director Ricardo Silva (pictured below right) was the winner of the Golden Leopard award for Best Film in the Filmmakers of the Present competition at the 2014 edition of the Locarno Film Festival.
The award, presented to the best film of the competition for first and second features, comes with a cash prize of $44,000 USD approximately to be shared equally between the director and the producer.
The Colombian film Los Hongos by director Oscar Ruiz Navia was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Filmmakers of the Present competition. Two other Latin American films received Special Mention in two separate sections of the festival: the Brazilian film August Winds / Ventos de Agosto by Gabriel Also in the main competition, and Chilean short film Muerte blanca by Roberto Collío in the Pardi di domani international competition.
Mixing documentary and fiction, Navajazo portrays characters struggling to survive in a hostile environment, in the border city of Tijuana, where all they have is each other and the only thing they possess is the will to keep on living, no matter the cost. The film portraits prostitutes and migrants, a musician nicknamed El Muerto, a director of porn films, a collector of toys and a home-video actor known as El Alacrán.
The 2014 edition of the Locarno Film Festival took place August 6-16 in Switzerland.
