"Barrio Triste premiered at the Venice Film Festival weighted with at least a couple of expectations. It's the debut feature for Stillz, known till now for directing music videos for Bad Bunny (who years ago took him on quite early in his career) and other artists. It's also the latest feature produced by Edglrd, Harmony Korine's creative conglomerate, following the frontal audiovisual assaults of Aggro Drift and Baby Invasion, both directed by Korine and themselves highly anticipated for how they would re-scramble cinema."
"Stillz shot on a Betacam, operating the camera himself in a poorer neighborhood in Medellín, where his casting team found his actors and secured the cooperation of local mafia leaders. The resulting imagery has something of the eerie, liquid feel of early video experiments like Stranded in Canton or The Police Tapes, but in a setting and a range of moods and realism that harkens back to Los Olvidados (with long-walk street sequences that reminded me of Bi Gan)."
Barrio Triste premiered at the Venice Film Festival amid strong expectations. The film is Stillz's debut feature, produced by Edglrd and emerging from a music-video background. The narrative opens with a Medellín skater crew stealing a video camera and filming a smash-and-grab raid on a jewelry store, then shifts into melancholic nocturnal wanderings through a barrio. The film intercuts near-emo interviews with young gang members who tear up answering wide-ranging questions. Shooting on Betacam, Stillz operated the camera in a poorer Medellín neighborhood, securing actors through local casting and mafia cooperation. The imagery evokes early video experiments and classic neorealist moods, culminating in a surreal night sequence with personal resonance for Stillz.
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