SYNOPSIS
A working-class girl from Guatemala City travels to a small coastal town to infiltrate a gang in order to find her sister who has gone missing in the intense crime thriller CADEJO BLANCO, from Director Justin Lerner (The Automatic Hate)
Sarita lives with her sister Bea in a working-class neighborhood in Guatemala City, and, one night, she goes out dancing at the insistence of her free-spirited sister and she heads home alone when the party drags on too late. The next morning, after calling friends and neighbors, Sarita begins to panic when she realizes that Bea never made it home. The police are indifferent and unhelpful, but Sarita suspects that Bea’s disappearance has something to do with Andrés, her sister’s dangerous ex. Realizing she must take matters into her own hands, Sarita manages to befriend him and infiltrate the crime-laden underbelly of Guatemala. Narrowly avoiding death at every turn, and with an unwavering determination in the face of the men who underestimate her, Sarita becomes increasingly involved with Andrés and the ruthless, violent world of his gang. As she searches for answers about what happened to her sister, she realizes that the truth is a lot more complicated than she could have imagined. Praised for its “gritty authenticity” (Screen Daily) and cast with almost entirely non-professional actors, Cadejo Blanco is an intense, nail-biting thriller in the vein of Sin Nombre and Maria Full of Grace, digging deep into the underbelly of gang culture and called “never less than compelling” by Jennie Kermode of Eye for Film.
DIRECTOR BIO: JUSTIN LERNER
Justin Lerner is an award-winning filmmaker from Boston, Massachusetts. His first feature film, GIRLFRIEND, premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and won the 2011 Gotham Independent Film Audience Award. His second feature film, THE AUTOMATIC HATE, made its world premiere at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and its international premiere at the 2015 Busan Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Flash Forward Award (best first or second feature). Lerner lives in both the USA and in Guatemala. In 2016, he helped launch the Escuela de Cine at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala City. He also was the program’s very first film professor.
CADEJO BLANCO (2021)
Written & Directed by: Justin Lerner
Cast: Karen Martinez, Rudy Rodrigues, Brandon Lopez,
Pamela Martinez, Juan Pablo Olyslager
Produced by: Mauricio Escobar, Justin Lerner, Jack Patrick Hurley,
Ryan Friedkin
Co-Produced by: Pedro H. Murcia
Executive Produced by: Cesar Diaz, Pamela Guinea,
Francisco Palarea Sinibaldi, Gino Falsetto, Juan I. Ayau
Cinematography by: Roman Kasseroller
Genre: World Cinema/Crime Thriller
RT: 125 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1
Sound: 2.0 Stereo
Language: Spanish with English Subtitles
