La Roya Introduction

Director Juan Sebastián Mesa gives an introduction to the film La Roya showing at HOME as part of ¡Viva! 28th Spanish & Latin American Festival

From the director of anarcho-punk drama Los Nadie (¡Viva! 2018), La Roya inverts that tale of urban youth and transports us to the lush, forested hills of a remote coffee plantation, where Jorge is the last young man to work the land. Occasional illicit trysts offer Jorge respite from the heavy duties of farming and of caring for his grandfather, and now the local town fiesta is approaching, with the promise of letting loose with old schoolfriends who’ve returned to party, including his first love, Andrea. Nothing will solve the Coffee Leaf Rust that blights his crops, nor the memories of his late father that haunt his exquisitely beautiful dreams, but staying in his land is an act of love and resistance.

¡Viva! 28th Spanish & Latin American Festival features 50 screenings of 21 films from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Mexico.

Fri 18 Mar 2022 – Thu 7 Apr 2022 at HOME Manchester.