Peru / England / Spain,
1991, 98 min
Shown in 1992
CREDITS
- dir
-
Alberto Durant
- prod
-
Andrés Malatesta, Emilio Salomon
- scr
-
Jose Wantanabe, José María Salcedo, Alberto Durant
- cam
-
Mario García Joya
- editor
-
Gianfranco Annichini
- cast
-
Germán Gonzales, Elsa Olivero, Orlando Sacha
- source
-
Perfo Studio
-
COMMENTS
Alberto Durant in person.
OTHER
Peruvian director Durant teamed up with the great Cuban cinematographer Mario Garcia Joya to craft a riveting adventure thriller in the tradition of Papillon. Based on the adventures of a real character, an outlaw known as "La Gringa" who's adept at escaping from prison, Alias la Gringa tells the story of a convict who risks his life in order to repay a friend's favor. La Gringa escapes from jail and, together with his wife, is about to flee to Ecuador. He is captured by the police and sent to a high-security prison island. There he meets a university professor unjustly accused of terrorism. La Gringa starts writing about what he sees in prison. The professor corrects the texts and a true friendship is born. La Gringa is almost murdered by an old enemy and the Professor unexpectedly saves his life. La Gringa escapes, forced to leave the Professor behind. Hiding in Lima, about to flee the country again, La Gringa learns that prison is driving the Professor mad. He returns to help his friend escape. When he arrives at the prison, the inmates are rioting and the army is about to start bombing the prison. Durant weaves in acute comments on terrorism and the military, especially in the climactic finale. A solid action thriller, this film is also a gripping commentary on prison systems.
FACTOID #10
In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which has inspired many women to jump into fountains, was pulled from the San Francisco International Film Festival’s program by the distributor and replaced with Roberto Rossellini’s Night over Rome.
