Music Box Films Release has announced the U.S. theatrical release of the Mexican film A Monster With a Thousand Heads / Un monstruo de mil cabezas, opening on Wednesday, May 11 at Film Forum and Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and on Friday, May 20 at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles followed by a national roll out.
Directed by renowned Uruguayan and Mexico-based director Rodrigo Plá, the gripping "woman against the system" thriller stars stage actress Jana Raluy making her ferocious screen debut—for which she won several awards including the Best Actress Award at the Havana Film Festival— and boasts an screenplay by Laura Santullo adapted from her own novel.
Hailed as "a lean and efficient mix of thriller, drama and socio-political commentary" (Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter), the film was nominated for six Ariel Awards (Mexico's Academy Awards) including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Emilio Echevarría), and Best Editing. It had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, and has successfully played at numerous film festivals including AFI Fest and London.
A sharp, urgent tale of a distraught woman intent on protecting her family at all costs, A Monster With a Thousand Heads is an engrossing combination of thriller, drama and timely sociopolitical commentary.
The monster in question is feared and loathed in Mexico, as it is everywhere: the medical insurance industry. Sonia (Raluy)’s critically ill husband requires an expensive medication their insurance company refuses to approve. So we can’t help but admire her for taking matters into her own hands.
What begins as a frustrating call to a bureaucratic phone tree, escalates into a grimly comic confrontation with her husband’s doctor as he luxuriates in a steam bath, and finally a violent hostage-taking standoff. Sonia does battle with all 1000 heads of the insurance industry: its brilliant ability to hide behind obfuscation and pettiness, its callous disregard for human suffering and, ultimately, its corruption.
A Monster With a Thousand Heads re-teams Uruguay-born, Mexico-raised Plá with screenwriter Laura Santullo, who also wrote the novel on which the film is based. The husband and wife pair have collaborated on all four of Plá’s feature films, notably his acclaimed debut The Zone, which won the Best First Film prize at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.
