LOS DÍAS DE LA BALLENA

DAYS OF THE WHALE

By Catalina ARROYAVE

OUTSIDER PICTURES - as SALES All rights, World / DISTR

First film - Completed 2018

Two young idealistic friends challenge a criminal band of Medellín, when they decide to cover a handwritten threat on a wall with the drawing of a whale.

Festivals
& Awards

SXSW 2019
CherryPicks First Feature Award
    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • First film, Social issues, Drama
    • Countries
    • COLOMBIA
    • Languages
    • SPANISH
    • Budget
    • 0.3 - 0.6 M$
    • Duration
    • 90 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Catalina ARROYAVE
    • Writer(s)
    • Catalina ARROYAVE
    • Producer(s)
    • Guerrero NAUDIN (Jaime )
    • Synopsis
    • Cristina and Simon are two young idealistic friends who spend their time together painting the walls, walking down the streets and talking about of the city they live in. They take a stance when there is something they disapprove, intoxicated by the adrenaline that generates the act of painting together while they feel the most immortals of the mortals.

      Cristina's mother is a well-known local journalist forced to flee the country after getting death threats for publishing a detailed report on the criminal organizations of Medellin. At the same time, Cristina, Simon and a circle of friends who frequent an old downtown house known as The Jungle, decide to publish a fanzine exposing the extortion, intimidation and arbitrary murders perpetrated by a local criminal gang operating in the local community; the gang responds with a threat handwritten on a wall across The Jungle which reads: "Snitches end up in ditches". Cristina and Simon, express their outrage by taking the decision of covering the big black letters of the threat left on the wall with a mural, the painting of a colorful big whale.

      This arouses the anger of the members of the criminal gang, who have no patience for those who decide to live outside their rules. Cristina and Simon ignore their discomfort and continue working on the mural. This project brings them closer together, leading to her decision of not leaving the city, in clear opposition to her parents’ wishes, and those of the members of the gang who start implementing increasingly drastic strategies to force them to get away from the neighborhood.

      Besides confronting the powerful strength represented by the youth in opposition to the violence that takes place in a city, this story also deals with the frustration posed by the environment, the uncertainty, the infatuation, the struggle that comes along with growing up and how two individuals cope with the prospect of leaving a mark among the mountains of Medellin.
    • Partners & financing
    • Fondo para el desarrollo Cinematográfico - Fondo para la producción de primera pelicula de director (Development Cinema Fund - Economic grant for first film production) - 220.000 EUR
    • Beginning of shooting
    • Sep 19, 2017
    • End of shooting
    • Oct 15, 2017