Somos Mari Pepa (We Are Mari Pepa)

Director: Samuel Kishi Leopo

Mexico 2013, 95 min, Spanish

Their first punk song is obscene and powerful. But now, if the four lads from Mari Pepa are to take part in a battle of the bands, they have a pressing need for a new song. Their second is just like the first – but sadly not as inspired. They’re only half way on the road to fame when reality catches up with them: a dull holiday job, their first girlfriend, problems with parents – everything suddenly seems to conspire against them. Alex is the band’s quiet brooder. When his guitar is stolen this puts an end to his dream of following in the footsteps of Iggy Pop and the Ramones. At a party he gets it on with a girl for the first time. But the next morning he has to shuffle home with his feet in plastic bags: he lost his trainers while he was high. Will Mari Pepa lose its devil-may-care attitude for good this summer? With a talent for careful observation, young Mexican filmmaker Samuel Kishi Leopo succeeds in creating an impressively realistic and atmospheric portrait. The plot is as open-ended as life itself when you’re sixteen, and the photography is as natural as though the protagonists were used to having a camera around all the time.