I'M GONNA EXPLODE
aka VOY A EXPLOTAR

Year: 2008
USA: IFC Films
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Juan Pablo de Santiago, Maria Deschamps, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Pedro Gonzalez, Rebecca Jones, Martha Claudia Moreno
Director: Gerardo Naranjo
Country: Mexico
Language: Spanish (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 106 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, sex and moderate violence
USA Release Date: 12 August 2009 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 1 January 2010 (Limited Release)

US Distributor
UK Distributor

Synopsis

Roman (Juan Pablo de Santiago) and Maru (Maria Deschamps), two troubled teenagers, attempt an impossible rebellion against the adult world. Maru, a 15 year-old loner, meets Roman, the reckless son of a corrupt right wing politician. United by their desire to fight the inertia that they feel surrounding them, the two embark on a revolt against everything and everyone when they decide to run away to a place where they are free of other peoples expectations.

This leads them to an accidental new intimacy and the discovery of their sexuality, a bond that both unites and confuses them. Despite the risk of getting caught by the police and their parents, the young fugitives jeopardize the security of their hiding place and seek to expand the limits of their paradise. But this will mean a return to reality, where wounds are genuine and actions have consequences.

About the director

For Gerardo Naranjo cinema has been something of a saviour. Growing up in the small Mexican town of Salamanca, he was frequently in trouble and in and out of different schools. Watching films offered an escape from his struggles with authority.

Later he ended up studying at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where he founded the cinema club 'Zero for Conduct' - named after the Jean Vigo movie, a favourite which appealed to his sense of rebellion - in order to screen classic films. It was also in Mexico that he started working on film criticism and directed his first short Pero Negro in 1997.

From there Gerardo went on to study for a Masters in Directing at the American Film Institute in LA. His Masters thesis The Last Attack of the Beast won several awards and much critical acclaim and acted as a spring board for his debut feature film MALACHANCE (2004). The next year he co-wrote and starred in Azazel Jacobs' THE GOOD TIMES KID (2005).

His sophomore effort, Drama/Mex, premiered at Cannes in May 2006 for the "Semaine de la Critique" before going on to screen at fifty more festivals around the world.

Gerardo's new film I'M GONNA EXPLODE premiered at the 65th Venice Biennale in 2008 and was officially selected for the 46th New York Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Berlinale (Generation Programme) and won the "FIPRESCI" award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.