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"A rough-and-tumble, enjoyable yarn about a group of 16-year-old punk-rock wannabes from Guadalajara." – Hollywood Reporter
Sixteen-year-old Alex and his mates want to enter their punk band, Mari Pepa, into a Mexican battle of the bands competition. They need to come up with a second song to be eligible and the creative juices are, well, slow to fire.
Set in Mexico's second-largest city over the summer holidays, this assured drama captures all the crude energy and frequent humiliations of male adolescence – and wannabe rock stars. Avoiding cliché, the story takes a different route, detouring into the boys' home lives where the reality of adulthood often threatens to derail their grandiose plans.
A feature-length expansion of director Samuel Kishi Leopo's award-winning short, We Are Mari Pepa is a sensitive, invigorating film, with a punk/traditional Mexican soundtrack adding extra rhythm.
"A tender, pitch-perfect coming-of-ager." – Variety
MIFF recommends ages 15+