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“The intense, remarkable life of Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra is explored with sensitivity and exquisite lightness of touch in Andres Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven." - Variety
In the mid-60s Violeta Parra was the Edith Piaf of Chile: a beloved singer and visual artist who became a pop-cultural phenomenon and whose songs - including Gracias de la Vida, later covered by Joan Baez - ignited a renewed interest in Chilean folk music. Violeta Went to Heaven tells the rags-to-artistic-riches story of her life, blending touches of magic realism and a soulful soundtrack of her music into a moving, emotive and unconventionally non-linear biopic.
Directed by Andres Wood (Machuca, MIFF 05) and starring Francisca Gavilan in the title role, Violeta Went to Heaven was Chile's Academy Awards entry and winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
“Gavilan delivers a profoundly committed [performance] that manages to be intense, gutsy and nuanced all at once.” - Variety
D Andrés Wood P Patricio Pereira S Eliseo Altunaga, Rodrigo Bazaes, Guillermo Calderón, Andrés Wood Dist Madman Entertainment L Spanish, English, French w/English subtitles TD DCP/2011