Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building (Seis Meses e el Edificio Rosa con Azul). The title alone may intrigue you enough to go watch Mexican director Bruno Santamaría Razo‘s first fiction feature, which world premieres in this year’s edition of the Cannes Critics’ Week on Tuesday, May 19.
If you want to know a bit more, here is the synopsis: “Bruno, a young, precocious 11-year-old growing up in 1990s Mexico City, must cope with grown-up responsibilities following the life-changing news of his father’s HIV diagnosis. This news transforms his innocent childhood as he must navigate his emotions not only about his father’s illness and its impact on his entire family, but also his growing feelings for his best friend Vladimir.”
Mirroring salsa songs, the family tries to sing and dance their pain away. But 30 years later, Bruno feels the urge to film and reimagine the memory of what he could not quite perceive as a kid. Concludes the description of the film: “Through a lens of familial love and joyful celebration, the filmmaker processes the pain, and ultimately understanding, of this turbulent time in his childhood.”
The cast is made up of Jade Reyes, Sofía Espinosa, Lázaro Gabino, Eduardo Ayala, Valeria Vanegas, Anuar Vera, Teresa Sánchez, Valentina Cohen, Nara Carreira and Demick Lopes.
Santamaría Razo, whose films explore memory, secrets, and childhood, has worked as a cinematographer and documentary director. His 2020 documentary Cosas que no hacemos won the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Grand Prize at BAFICI.
He wrote and directed Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building and edited it with Andrea Rabasa Jofre. Fernando Hernández García handled the cinematography for the movie, which was produced by Carlos Quinonez and Bruna Haddad. Luxboxis in charge of sales. The film was produced by Mexico’s Ojo de Vaca Productora in co-production with Brazil’s Desvia Films and Denmark’s Snowglobe.
“During filming, something very powerful happened,” the filmmaker shares in press notes about the film. “For example, there was a moment when an actor said a very ordinary line, something simple, and someone in my family heard it and immediately recognized themselves in it. Even if they didn’t remember ever saying it, they recognized themselves. They saw themselves there. And that was very important to me. Because I felt fiction was managing to connect with something deeply true.”
THR can now exclusively reveal a clip for Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building. It allows you to get a first feel for the cinematic tone and vibe of the film as it transports us to Mexico City in the ‘90s. Get ready to move and dance – and to get a sneak peek at Bruno and his surroundings. But don’t forget: Inhale! Exhale!
Watch the exclusive clip from Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building below.