★★★★

Guillermo del Toro listed Tigers Are Not Afraid as one of his ten favorite films of 2017, and it becomes easy to see why. Director Issa Lopez’s film is a sobering, powerful, and richly symbolic look at the devastating consequences of Mexican gang culture and the victims so often forgotten about – the children.

After the loss of her mother, 10-year-old Estrella (Paola Lara, terrific) becomes a member of a homeless group of kids led by another kid, dubbed El Jefe. As Estrella has unsettling and supernatural interactions with a being she believes to be her mother, the kids find themselves caught up in a conflict with a vicious drug lord named El Shine (Juan Ramon Lopez), seeking a cell phone that provides answers to questions the children do not realize they are asking.

With striking performances from the young cast, Tigers Are Not Afraid speaks uniquely to a tragic real-life consequence of so many senseless killings and murders. Lopez’s film is moving, occasionally shocking, and emotional, as these children call on everything they know to summon up the courage to survive one more day

Starring: Paola Lara, Hanssel Casillas, Juan Ramón López, Tenoch Huerta, Ianis Guerrero, Rodrigo Cortes
Director: Issa Lopez
Running Time: 83 MInutes

SIFF SHOWTIMES:
May 18 | Ark Lodge | 9:00 PM
May 30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown | 9:30 PM