Anhell69

Theo Montoya's 2023 Colombian film begins from a film that could not be made. Montoya was preparing a horror film with young people in Medellín; Camilo, whom he had cast in the lead, died of an overdose, and many in the cast lost their lives soon after. The film is built on those losses. As a hearse moves through the city, Montoya narrates his own childhood, his sexuality and the city's history of violence; essay, documentary and fiction interweave in the same telling. The casting tapes are the real material. Recordings of the young people who died are shown one after another, each speaking briefly; the documentary does not turn them into a list of the dead but records what they wanted to say. Who it's for: those who follow Latin American experimental cinema and queer narratives. Who it's not for: viewers for whom drug deaths and suicide would sit heavily.