New York Premiere!

This faithful rendition of Una novelita lumpen is the first of Roberto Bolaño’s literary works to be adapted for cinema. Scherson’s third feature (Play and Turistas, her first two, showcased in earlier editions of Latinbeat) tells the story of Bianca and her brother Tomas, two suddenly orphaned Chilean teenagers who, in the dark midst of their mourning slowly descend into an underworld of B-movies, cheap novels and derelict characters in the margins of their adopted city, Rome. Manuela Martelli plays the vulnerable and beautiful Bianca, who is drawn into a heist to rob a hidden treasure from an aging and ailing former Miss Universe and old-school Hercules star (Rutger Hauer). This sexual and emotional adventure becomes a rite of passage that gives her a sense of empowerment strong enough to move on into a future, however uncertain, from which she soberly narrates this story.