One intriguing title that has caught our eye on the fall festival slate this year is Tragic Jungle (Selva trágica), the fifth feature from director Yulene Olaizola. Set to premiere this week at Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti competition, it’ll soon head to the 58th New York Film Festival where it is part of the Main Slate selection. Set in 1920 in the border between Mexico and Belize, the film follows a group of Mexican gum workers who cross paths with Agnes, a beautiful and mysterious Belizean woman. Ahead of the premiere, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.
“The film is set in the early 1920s on the Mexico-Belize border during the years of gum extraction in the region; gum workers penetrated deep into the jungle for as long as eight months at a time,” said the director. “Tragic Jungle takes viewers into this hostile environment, absorbing them in the human conflicts brewing within it. The jungle is a living being, harassed by those men trying to steal its treasures; but it takes revenge in different ways, with poisonous plants, swarms of mosquitos, fierce animals, and with the enchantment of mysterious creatures.”
Starring Indira Rubie Adrewin, Gilberto Barraza, Dale Carley, Eligio Meléndez, Gabino Rodríguez, Gildon Roland, and Mariano Tun Xool, see the trailer and poster below.
Tragic Jungle premieres at Venice Film Festival and will screen at New York Film Festival.