Outsider Pictures Nabs Worldwide Distribution Rights to Colombian Nina Marín’s Debut ‘Broken Land’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Los Angeles-based Outsider Pictures has picked up worldwide sales rights to Colombian Nina Marín’s feature debut “Tierra quebrá” (“Broken Land”), inspired by the magical realism literary genre.

Produced by Óscar Alvarado at Marine Films, a company based in the northern Colombian city of Valledupar, “Broken Land” delivers a female story with women carrying the story from beginning to end.

Filmed in Valledupar, the film follows Manuela, a widowed woman who returns with her three children to her mother’s home, located in a rural area of brutal civil conflict.

She seeks to rebuild family ties with her mother Elba and her uncle Darío, but life ruptures again when her eldest son drowns. Elba, superstitious, decides to bury the young man with his feet towards the house, to retain his spirit.

After a year of living together, Manuela lives a love affair with her uncle.

“I was moved by the film, from the opening to the close. It mixes García Márquez-style magical realism with the harsh realities of life in rural Colombia,” said Outsider Pictures founder Paul Hudson.

“Broken Land” was filmed in black and white from the point of view of Manuela, who lives in constant mourning.

For her first feature, Marín has taken as key references realistic texts from Juan Rulfo’s short-story “No oyes ladrar a los perros,” Isabel Allende’s novel “La casa de los espíritus,” and books by Federico Garcia Lorca and Gabriel Garcia Márquez.

“The film is a metaphor about a woman broken by life, love and death who, despite living in such inhospitable environments, is capable of surviving in adversity like a resistant seed that germinates in an arid and barren terrain,” Marín explained.

“It arises from a personal need to talk about forbidden loves that by social guidelines must remain in the secret places of the heart. The film also addresses the issue of death, apprehensions raised by absent loved ones, and roots of superstition,” she added.

Cast takes in Amelia Álvarez Martínez, Ana Elvira Díaz Dangond, Naudith Rodríguez, María Alejandra Barrios and Carlos Marín Díaz.

“Broken Land” has won support from Colombia’s FDC Film Fund, Colombia’s Bogotá Audiovisual Market Screening 2021 and Chile’s FicViña Construye 2020.

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