Barrio Triste

When a camera is stolen, four teenagers seize control of their own story. Barrio Triste offers a window into the turbulent world of a youth forced to grow up too soon on the fringes of Medellín. In the late 1980s, amid poverty and violence, the boys snatch a camera from a local news crew and use it to document their own lives. What begins as mischievous curiosity spirals into a hypnotic, hallucinatory journey through a universe of brutality, loneliness, and fragile moments of joy. Colombian-American photographer and music video director Stillz brings to his feature debut the same boldness and creativity that defined his collaborations with artists like Bad Bunny and Rosalía.

Blending raw found-footage, the direct language of lo-fi video, and long tracking shots through labyrinthine alleys, brick houses, and steep hillsides, the film immerses us in an atmosphere saturated with violence and the instinct to survive. Strange lights and sudden disappearances cast an almost magical glow, giving the whole work a distinctly poetic charge. Through the stolen camera, we experience the world as the boys do—their chaos, their silences, their hidden vulnerabilities—while struggles they can barely articulate unfold before our eyes. The pulsating score of Venezuelan composer ARCA electrifies the images, while inner monologues and intimate close-ups draw us intensely close to actors Juan Pablo Baena, Samuel Velázquez, Tomás Tinoco Higuita, and Brahian Acevedo.

For the first time, EDGLRD—the production company of American filmmaker Harmony Korine, known for experimental, boundary-pushing films like Gummo—produced a project without Korine at the helm, giving Stillz the freedom to fully realize his vision. The result is an uncompromising cinematic experience that plunges us into life on the margins, in all its rawness and poetry. Even in its darkest corners, unexpected glimmers of hope emerge, pulling us deeper into the fundamental question of existence: how do you stay standing when everything around you slips from your grasp?