ZONA SUR

a.k.a. “Southern District”

SUNDANCE, WINNER: SCREENWRITING AND DIRECTING AWARDS

SYNOPSIS

Nestled in the lush valley of La Paz, Bolivia, the upper-class suburb of Zona Sur has sheltered the country’s wealthy elite for many years. Here, in an adobe-tile-roofed castle, a statuesque matriarch reigns over her spoiled progeny and her Indigenous Aymaran butler. As the mother fights with her oversexed son and clashes with her petulant daughter, her six-year-old son rambles the rooftops unnoticed. Decline hangs in the air, and the threat of aristocratic privileges changing hands signifies a new chapter of a prickly and ill-fated class war.

OFFICIAL SELECTION

Tokyo International Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival (WINNER: Screenwriting and Directing Awards)
Berlinale; Berlin International Film Festival 
Seattle International Film Festival
Guadalajara International Film Festival (WINNER: Best Script, Best Actor, Best Director)

DETAILS

  • DIRECTOR

    Juan Carlos Valdivia

  • RUNNING TIME

    108 minutes

  • GENRE(S)

    Drama

  • CAST

    Ninón del Castillo
    Pascual Loayza
    Nicolás Fernández
    Juan Pablo Koria

REVIEWS

‘… a ravishing look at a bourgeois Bolivian family undergoing quiet emotional turmoil… [the director’s] themes are so accessible that [the film’s] ruminations on generational divides and the challenges of raising a family transcend geographical borders.’