With fall film festival season mostly behind us and all eyes moving towards the upcoming awards season, it’s time to look at some of the festival films from this year that have been gaining quite a bit of awards consideration. And in Mexico, the country’s big Oscar hope is the upcoming feature, “Prayers for the Stolen.”
As seen in the trailer for “Prayers for the Stolen,” the film follows the story of a group of young girls forced to wear short hair and hide themselves from the forces that aim to take them and turn them into slaves or worse. The film stars Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Marya Membreño, Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo, Eileen Yáñez, and Memo Villegas. “Prayers for the Stolen” is written and directed by Tatiana Huezo, based on the novel by Jennifer Clement.
The feature debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the Un Certain Regard Special Mention. In our review, we said, “‘Prayers’ stands as a continuation of [Heuzo’s] brilliance and expands it to a storytelling format with distinct tools for engagement, yet the impact is just as searing. Huezo’s ardor for humanistic examination loses no fire in this metamorphosis.”
“Prayers for the Stolen” hits Netflix on November 17. You can watch the trailer below.
Here’s the synopsis:
In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled and dress up as women when no one is watching. In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hideout in time. Liberally adapted from Jennifer Clement’s eponymous 2014 novel.