An exemplary piece of work about two estranged brothers hailing from the port of Buenaventura—the most dangerous city in Colombia—who find themselves at the bottom of the drug trade.

Hired to transport a torpedo filled with cocaine up the Colombian coast, Jacobo (Jarlin Javier Martinez) and Delio (Cristian James Abvincula) reconnect as director Josef Wladyka juxtaposes the horrors and violence of the drug trade with the quotidian: discussions about soccer, the prettiest girl in Buenaventura, and fantasies about who their sons will grow up to be. All set on a rickety boat cutting through the Pacific with lush greenery as a backdrop. There is a familiarity to the story, but Wladyka tells it well and from an angle rarely seen. For his efforts, the Tribeca Film Festival awarded him with the Best New Narrative Director Award.

Manos Sucias (2014)
Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka
Written by Alan Blanco, Josef Kubota Wladyka
Produced by Elena Greenlee, Márcia Mayer
Starring: Cristian James Abvincula, Jarlin Javier Martinez
The Film Collaborative, Not rated, Running time 84 minutes, Premiered April 17, 2014 at the Tribeca Film Festival

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The above blurb first appeared in the pages of Boulder Weekly Vol. 23, No. 8, “Saludos amigos.”