Jonathan LaPoma and Natalia Porras Sivolobova’s feature-length coming-of-age drama, LA TIERRA QUE YO AMO (LAND THAT I LOVE), got a great review from the Oaxaca Film Festival. According to the reviewer:

“Land That I Love narrates a story about a girl who returns to her homeland in Oaxaca, after ‘failing’, as she puts it, to pursue a career in dance in New York City. She is upset with herself and she feels unrest with the idea of being back, and returning to the same old patterns of life: protests, women being raped and their case not being opened, violence, corruption, machismo… The story unfolds slowly and never stops being interesting. It keeps one wanting to read more and discover, as the story unravels, the secrets each character holds inside . . . The story paints an appropriate image of Mexico’s current situation, specifically that of Oaxaca. It is easy to imagine this script being based on a true-story, and that is what makes it great. The two main characters, Zoe and Ian develop tremendously through the questions and situations they stumble upon while living in Oaxaca: questionings of ‘where does one belong to’, ‘ones roots’, ‘what one should fight for’, ‘what does one want to do in life’, etc. These questions and ponders make the reader ask those to himself as well, or brings them to a similar situation they have been involved in in the past. This all makes the story vibrant and solid.”

Patricia Chica (CERAMIC TANGO, WOLVERINE HOTEL) is attached to direct.