OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS

Year: 2000
USA: Paramount Classics
Cast: German Jaramillo, Anderson Ballesteros, Juan David Restrepo, Manuel Busquets
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Countries: Colombia / France / Spain
Language: Spanish (English subtitles)
USA Rated: R for strong violence, language, sexuality and drug content
USA Release Date: 7 September 2001 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

The writer Fernando Vallejo (German Jaramillo), author of 'La Virgen de los Sicarios' upon which this film is based, returns to Medellin, Colombia, the city of his childhood, after an absence of over thirty years. Fernando meets Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros), 16 years old, in a boys' brothel. Alexis comes from the slums. He has been drawn into a world of killing.

Love begins to blossom between Fernando and Alexis. But their love has no future... due to the harsh reality around them and anyone who crosses Alexis' path can be a possible victim. Alexis needs no reason to kill: like an Angel of Death, he openly fires on anybody who rubs him the wrong way. Bound by their passion for each other, they wander from church to church, murder to murder, each day their love growing stronger.

Then one day, a passing motorcyclist shoots Alexis down. Fernando roams the streets where, in spite of the squalor and violence, everything reminds him of his romance with Alexis. One day, he meets a young boy, Wilmar (Juan David Restrepo), who at first glance looks like Alexis.

A new love story begins for Fernando, as if in this city reality has been turned upside down, and the dead seem to come alive again.