Maria Full of Grace

HBO Films and Fine Line Features present the Sundance and Berlin Film Festival award winner, MARIA FULL OF GRACE. The film tells the story of one young woman’s journey from a small Colombian town to the streets of New York. A bright, spirited 17-year old, Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia and works stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation. The offer of a lucrative job involving travel – in fact, becoming a drug "mule" – changes the course of her life. Far from the uneventful trip she is promised, Maria is transported into the risky and ruthless world of international drug trafficking. Her mission becomes one of determination and survival and she finally emerges with the grace that will carry her forward into a new life. Directed by Joshua Marston, the film is in Spanish, with English sub-titles. An HBO Films/Fine Line Features release, Maria Full of Grace was honored with the Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and two awards at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival: Catalina Sandino Moreno shared the Silver Bear for Best Actress with Charlize Theron of MONSTER, and the film won the Alfred Bauer Prize for Best First Feature for director Joshua Marston.

Marston will attend the 1:30 p.m. screening at the Sunset 5 on July 18 and conduct a Q&A afterwards.

"Marston's strikingly confident debut maintains an unblinking focus and sustains an almost unbearable level of tension." -- David Rooney, VARIETY

 "Throughout, we're constantly rooting for Maria, aware of her underlying decency and protective of her missteps."
-- Duane Byrge, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER