La Vendedora de Rosas

La Vendedora de Rosas or The Rose Seller, a brutal Columbian movie by Victor Gaviria. Loosely based on a story by Hans Christian Anderson it depicts the lives of young girls in a crime infested, drug infested suburb of Columbia. Children who run away from their homes because of violence in their homes get caught into the drug gangs racket, sniffing glue and trying to eke a living in a violent poverty ridden world. Monica is the fulcrum of the story, brilliantly played by Leidy Tabares, she is the one around whom the other girls revolve a sort of an unofficial leader of them. In comes Andrea all of 10 years old, also run away from a violent home. The girls have to be smart to survive in this squalid world where young boys are constantly looking to take advantage of them. All of them have one soft spot, for Monica it is her dead grandmother whom she had loved very much. A sort of Salaam Bombay kinda movie it delves into a Columbian life where violence is a just a few seconds away. A lot of scenes in the movie is quite realistic. Gaviria has managed to extract quite brilliant performances from all the kids in the movie.