Netflix has done a fantastic job of boosting international film festival darlings, even if they get buried underneath the sea of content that the streaming giant churns out every day. Netflix’s latest festival acquisition is the Mexican teen drama I’m No Longer Here, from writer/director Fernando Frías de la Parra, who recently came off the success of the first season of HBO’s Los Espookys. Watch the I’m No Longer Here trailer below.

I’m No Longer Here Trailer

I’m No Longer Here stars a cast of non-actors, rooted in Frias’ documentary roots, led by Juan Daniel Garcia who stars as Ulises, a teen from a street gang hooked on cumbia music in Monterrey, Mexico who, after a “terrible misunderstanding,” must flee across the border to live in Queens. But he struggles with the death of his brother and feelings of isolation, as well as curious onlookers of his unique hairstyle — a hairstyle which is actually intentional and not an accident at the barbershop. Ulises’ hairstyle is common among the northeastern Mexican subculture of “Cholombianos,” which mix Cholo culture with the music genre of Cumbia Colombiana.

Rounding out the cast for I’m No Longer Here are Coral Puente, Leonardo Garza, Luis Leonardo Zapata “Leillo”, and Fanny Tovar.

The script for I’m No Longer Here made a splash in 2013 when it won the Bengala award in 2013, later getting published as a short story. In 2014 that script was chosen for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and soon, it won the Gabriel Figueroa Development Grant at Los Cabos Film Festival. Frias’ final film would premiere at the Cine Festival in 2019 and make the festival rounds at the Mar del Plata, Tallinn Black Nights, Puerto Escondido un Oaxaca, and Göteborg Film Festivals.

Here is the synopsis for I’m No Longer Here:

“In the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico, a small street gang named ‘Los Terkos’ spend their days listening to slowed down cumbia music and attending dance parties, showing off their outfits, hairstyles and gang alliances. Ulises Samperio, the leader of Los Terkos, tries to protect his friends from the nefarious elements of a quickly evolving drug/political war, but after a misunderstanding with a local cartel, he is forced to leave for Jackson Heights, Queens, a diverse immigrant community in New York City. Ulises tries to assimilate, but when he learns that his gang and the whole Kolombia culture is under threat, he questions his place in America and longs to return home.”

I’m No Longer Here will premiere on Netflix on May 27, 2020.

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