SYNOPSIS

Ana's recollection of the day when her sister Julia died, is a fragmented and foggy image that has haunted her since childhood. Now, Ana has returned to Tijuana, her hometown, where she has to face the pain and the darkness of her memories.

 

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.”

 

     F. Scott Fitzgerald

About the Project

 

"The Darkest Days of Us"

(Mexico, 2017)

97 min / Drama/ Digital

 

Written and Directed by Astrid Rondero

Cast: Sophie Alexander-Katz

Florencia Rios

Adolfo Madera

Produced by Fernanda Valadez

Associate Producer: Alex Zuno

Director of Photography:  Ximena Amann

 

Production: EnAguas Cine/ FOPROCINE/ Corpulenta

In Post-production.

It was shot at the end of 2015,

in Tijuana, BC and Mexico City.

 

Grants and Awards

-Mexican Fund for the Arts, FONCA 2012.

 -MEXICANNES summer residency, GIFF 2012.

-Project development grant, Mexican Film Institute, IMCINE 2013.

-First prize for best feature script granted by the “Matilde Landeta" Foundation, Mexico 2013.

-Selected for the Script Station, Berlinale Talents, Berlin 2014

-Funded by FOPROCINE, IMCINE 2014.

-Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, CIFF 2014.

-Supported by the TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE, 2015.

-Winner Fomento y Coinversiones, FONCA 2015.

Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, WORK IN PROGRESS, CIFF 2016.

Winner Labodigital prize, GFFF, CIFF 2016.

Grantee Women in Film Finishing Fund, USA 2016.

 

 

 

 

trailer

 

The first time I went to Tijuana I felt a very powerful connection. I was 23 years old and the city got into me.  There are many images of Tijuana that still linger in my mind, even today after so many years: the rusty border fence and the wild nights of drugstores, prostitutes and “americanos”, the cynic trafficking of women and children, reminded on billboards like the only rules of some kind of amusement park, where almost everything else is allowed.

 

Tijuana in all its beauty and sadness, with it’s powerful landscapes just as strong as its people, remained the never-ending source of inspiration for this story.

 

But it wasn’t until much later, even after the script was finished and I was taking the long journey of development and funding, that I returned. And as I walked its streets I understood my dark and strange fascination for this place.

Everything that is hidden in my immediate society, that little itch that always made me feel uncomfortable, that disparity that sometimes seemed to exist only in my mind, a feeling of not belonging, is clear in Tijuana, with no excuses.

 

My whole existence in Mexico City as a woman is, compared to it, a fantasy in a country torn by violence and social injustice. Here, us women, are products, merchandises meant to be trade. Tijuana condenses everything we fear and all that we are as human beings.

 

“The darkest days of us” is a parable about memory, destiny, and the very human desire to resist darkness. It is a tribute to our loves, the ones we lost and the ones we find along the way.

 

Astrid Rondero

Writer and Director

 

Director's Note

About the Director

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