Since MISS BALA’s extraordinary debut at the Cannes Film Festival, Gerardo Naranjo has been heralded as a major talent. The Official Mexican Oscar ® entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category, MISS BALA has enjoyed an illustrious festival run that includes – in addition to Cannes – the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. Naranjo was recently included in Variety’s 2011 list of 10 Directors to Watch.

MISS BALA tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that’s terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in Mexico’s violent drug war leave her shaken and transformed.

MOVIE REVIEW

Review by Nathan Samdahl (B)

Miss Bala, the official Mexican entry to the Oscars for 2011, is a dark and terrifying look into the world of Mexico's gang wars.  The story follows Laura, a young woman who is striving for a place in the Miss Baja California beauty pageant.  After an evening at a shady night club turns deadly when a heavily armed gang attacks, Laura unwillingly becomes a pawn for the criminal group in order to try to locate her best friend, who was separated in the mayhem.  No matter where she turns, including to the police, she discovers everyone is in the back pocket of the drug gang and there is no easy escape from her dilemma.  A downward spiral of violence ensues all while the gang exerts its influence to get her back in the beauty pageant she wanted to win so badly.
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