Maria Llena de Gracia

8/13/2019 Maria Llena de Gracia

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Mara llena de gracia eres

2004


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What ideas do you get from the cover?

What images or words are being played with?

What expectations do you have of this film?


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A film of firsts

It was the first feature film

produced by Joshua Marston.

It was actress Catalina Sandino Morenos

first role; she won Best Actress at the

Berlin Film Festival in 2004 and became

the first nominated for Best Actress at

the Academy Awards for a role spoken

entirely in Spanish.


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With steady sunshine and cheap labor, Colombian farms yield $1 billion

in exports, dominating the United States market.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/The-Secrets-Behind-Your-Flowers.html#ixzz2l1gLsqxa Follow us:

@SmithsonianMag on Twitter
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6/17

The Colombian flower industry:

presentation


7/17

The Colombian cartels

Since the 1970's, Colombia has been home to

some of the most violent and sophisticated

drug trafficking organizations in the world.

What started as a small cocaine smuggling

business has, in the last thirty years,blossomed into an enormous multi-national

cocaine empire.

Traffickers today have enough capital under

their control to build sophisticated smuggling

equipment, such as a high tech submarine thatwas recently discovered by the Colombian

National Police.


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The emphasis of the film

As a non-Colombian, Marston researched family

structure and social activities, and the work

involved on flower plantations, in order to begin

to understand what would propel someone to get

involved with the drug trade.

He decided to focus on the human story as opposed to the

drug story, and place it within a context of real social issues.


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Drug mules

72 bags of cocaine, 830 g, $200,000+


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10 facts on drug mules

Drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, are often placed in condoms, and are then

swallowed by a drug mule in order to evade detection by customs officials.

An average drug mule can swallow between 80125 of these pellets. These would

contain a total of 800g1,25kg.

Apart from imprisonment, the biggest danger to a drug mule is the possibility of

the rupturing of one of these pellets. Stomach acids can sometimes cause this.

Death is usually very quick, as the quantity of drugs ingested is so high. Heart

failure and breathing problems are usually the cause of death.

Drug mules often take medication to inhibit bowel movements for the flight.Sometimes they are also given tablets to reduce acid production in the stomach.

Once on the other side, they are given laxatives and the pellets pass through

their digestive systems. If they are caught by customs officials, they are often

locked in a room where there is a receptacle of some sort and they stay there

until they have passed all the pellets.


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Things that alert customs officials include the

following:

a passenger who appears to beoverweight (and who might have strapped

drugs onto their bodies);

a passenger who is exceptionally nervous;

a woman travelling alone, who has little

luggage and is not dressed for the expected

weather conditions in the country of

destination;

passengers who carry gifts or parcels for

other people.

X-rays, urine tests and sniffer dogs are

used to detect the presence of drugs.


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A drug mule could earn as little as $3 000 or

less for a trip. Drug lords, who commission the

mules, can sometimes make 100 times more

than that when selling the drugs brought in by

the mules.

The majority of drug mules are male, but the number of women doing this, is

on the increase. The women are often from poor communities and are viewed

as dispensable by the drug lords. Drug mules are usually in their twenties orthirties, but people up to the age of 72 have been caught doing this.

In one year (2002/2003) at J.F. Kennedy airport in New York, 145 drug mules

were intercepted. Of these, 38 were female and 107 were male.

Drugs wrapped in condoms can also be stored in the rectum. Drugs have also

been transported in suitcases with false bottoms, in babies nappies, inside

hollow statues, strapped to the body of the mule, or inside containers such as

shampoo bottles, to name but a few.


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In several countries drug trafficking is a capitaloffence. These include Bangladesh, Indonesia,

Malaysia, Saudi-Arabia and Vietnam.

(Susan Erasmus, Health24, updated November

2011)(Sources: bbc.co.uk; wikipedia.org;

spaces.icgpartners.com)


14/17

What to watch for / think about

Is this an anti-drug film?

How does Marascharacter develop?

What are the Biblical references or allegoriespresented?

Do you see any similarities to a documentary

in the style of filmmaking?

The portrayal of NYC


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group discussion Do you agree with this statement by the director:

There are probably certain universals of a 17-yearoldslife that cut across culture and economics.Explain

How real did this film seem and what made itso (or not)?

How is NYC portrayed (in comparison to Marashometown and the NYC that you know)?

Does the film justify Marasdecisions andactions? Do you sympathize with her or any ofthe other characters?


16/17

Writing assignment

You have a friend, acquaintance, public figureor family member you feel is out of control, orabout to become so.

Write a conversation you would have with thisperson recommending that he / she watchthis film.

Continue the conversation after the film hasbeen viewed.

@2 pages.


17/17

For next week

I will be sending you a Survey Monkey or something like

that to choose between several options. I will include

brief descriptions of each choice. I just cant decide!

Once the decision is made I will send along any relevant

background materials.

Maria Llena de Gracia

Documents

Transcript of Maria Llena de Gracia