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Dangerous
journey: Moreno (r) in Maria Full of Grace.
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Rite
of Passage
By
Ann Morrow
Maria
Full of Grace
Directed
by Joshua Marston
Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is 17 years old and lives
in a village in Colombia. She works for a flower factory,
scraping thorns off of roses in sweatshop conditions. Most
of her money goes to help support her family: grandmother,
mother, sister, and her sister’s baby. There are no men in
the household; it’s unspoken that the drug trade has taken
a toll on the village’s demographics. Maria hates her grueling
job, and isn’t too keen on her jerky boyfriend, Juan (Wilson
Guerrero). As she tells him, he’s a drag. After quitting her
job, she discovers that she is pregnant.
Written and directed by Joshua Marston, Maria Full of Grace
is an unusual film in that it concerns volatile subject matters
but deals with them with objectivity, compassion, and subdued
realism. At a dance, Maria meets a self-assured, courtly young
man who offers her a job as a “mule,” someone who transports
drugs into the United States. We have great sympathy for her
decision to take the job, especially since it’s clear that
she is not doing it for the young man, but because it’s her
only way out of her predicament. As her mother tells her,
“There’s nothing in this village but flowers.” Nothing else,
that is, except drugs.
Maria is “trained” to be a courier by Lucy, a glamorous, slightly
older woman from another village. The process itself is harrowing:
The women swallow latex-wrapped pellets of heroin the size
of large grapes—50 to 70 of them at time. If a pellet should
open inside their stomachs, they will die. And the chances
of getting caught are good to excellent. Maria tries to keep
her impulsive best friend, Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), from
becoming a mule, but Blanca will not be dissuaded; it’s too
much money to turn down. The flight to the States is extremely
tense, and when the women are met by their contacts in New
Jersey, they realize how dangerous their situation is—these
dealers are not like the kindly kingpin who supervised them
in Colombia.
The film confounds expectations at every turn, exposing the
drug trade—and the economic desperation that can fuel it—with
an attention to detail that is more cautionary than any crime
drama. Marston’s nonjudgmental viewpoint centers on how Maria
experiences the consequences of her decision. Strong and spirited,
she grows up in hurry, coping with extraordinarily awful situations
with a steadfast commitment to doing what’s right. Moreno,
the photogenic newcomer who plays Maria, is so natural and
magnetic that it’s almost impossible to tell that she’s acting
at all. All the actresses are exemplary, especially Patricia
Rae in a smaller role as Lucy’s sister, a seamstress living
in the Colombian quarter of Queens.
Filmed and edited in a casually methodical style, Maria
Full of Grace tells several stories seamlessly,
revealing with equal skill the depressing inner workings of
the drug trade, the frightening first days of immigration,
and the coming-of-age of an exceptional young woman. At the
end, viewers may find themselves fervently hoping that Maria’s
new life will provide her with the freedom and dignity she
deserves.
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