''600 Miles'' ( es, 600 Millas) is a 2015 Mexican

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Gabriel Ripstein Gabriel Ripstein (born 1972) is a Mexican film producer, director, editor and screenwriter. A producer since 1999, Ripstein has been involved in nine feature films (including two directed by his father, Mexican film director Arturo Ripstein). Two ...

. It was screened in the Panorama section of the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

where it won the award for Best First Feature. It was one of fourteen films shortlisted by Mexico to be their submission for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

. On 17 September 2015 it was selected to represent Mexico for the Foreign Language Oscar but it was not nominated.

Plot

Arnulfo Rubio smuggles weapons for a Mexican

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

. He is using an American associate, who buys the weapons in the United States for him. During one of the weapons purchases, ATF agent Hank Harris attempts to apprehend Arnulfo, but is surprised and knocked out by Arnulfo's American partner, who flees the scene immediately. A panicked Arnulfo restrains the unconscious Hank and loads him into a secret compartment of his SUV, driving over the border into Mexico with him. There, he lets Hank sit on the backseat, still handcuffed, while he drives to his hometown. During the drive, they get into a

roadblock A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be: *Roadworks *Temporary road closure during special events *Police chase *Robbery * Sobriety checkpoint In peaceful circumstances ...

set up by a different cartel. They are almost killed by the enforcers when they notice that a handcuffed American is in the car, but Hank is able to negotiate free passage by mentioning the names of several cartel members and assuring that he is doing business with them. While driving further, Hank and Arnulfo begin to talk to each other and get closer, with Hank mentioning that his wife has died from a stroke 6 months ago and that they were unable to have children. When they arrive, Arnulfo takes Hank to his uncle, a cartel member, and tries to explain that Hank could be useful to them with his knowledge of cartel information. His uncle, furious because Arnulfo created trouble by bringing an American government employee to him, ignores his explanation. He demands that Arnulfo kill Hank. When Arnulfo cannot bring himself to do it, his uncle attempts to shoot Hank, only to be shot and killed himself at the last second by Arnulfo. Hank and Arnulfo try to flee the country, with Hank calling some associates to arrange a safe extraction to the United States. They wait at the house of another of Arnulfo's uncles for Hank's associates. But the uncle secretly has alerted the cartel, who send enforcers to catch and/or kill both. Hank is able to flee the house while Arnulfo is caught. But Hank returns, shoots and kills the enforcers and flees with Arnulfo. Somewhere in the desert in the border country between Mexico and the United States, Hank lets Arnulfo get out of the car and drives away, leaving Arnulfo surprised and confused. The film ends with a domestic scene at Hank's home which shows that, in contrast to what he told Arnulfo, Hank's wife is still alive and it is implied that he has children.

Cast

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the " Brit Pack". He made his television debut ...

as Hank Harris *

Kristyan Ferrer Kristyan Ferrer (born Kristyan Antonio Ferrer Medel; 14 February 1995) is a Mexican actor in various roles since 2001. He played the role of El Smiley in the award-winning film '' Sin Nombre'', directed by US director Cary Joji Fukunaga. For his ...

as Arnulfo Rubio * Harrison Thomas as Carson * Monica del Carmen as Mamá Rubio * Julian Sedgwick as Ray Wilson * Craig Hensley as Gunstore Owner 5 (as Craig Oldfather) * Noé Hernández as Martín * Greg Lutz as Willy * Tad Sallee as Gun Show Exhibitor * Harris Kendall as Greta

Production

Ripstein produced the film with Mexican director

Michel Franco Michel Franco (born 28 August 1979) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his film '' After Lucia'' that won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. His films typically deal with the ...

. The screenplay, by Ripstein and Issa López, was inspired by the

ATF gunwalking scandal Gunwalking, or "letting guns walk", was a tactic used by the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office and the Arizona Field Office of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which ran a series of sting operations betw ...

. Ripstein wanted to focus the story on the two characters, rather than expanding it to include the cartel leaders. He attempted to express his view of guns "objectively, almost like a documentarian", since he has been exposed to guns from an early age; his grandfather took him and his brother shooting on weekends, and "my brother became an exceptional shot; they hunted ducks and my grandmother cooked them".

Release and reception

''600 Miles'' premiered in the Panorama Section of the

, where it won the Best First Feature Film award (the second consecutive award for a Mexican film;

Alonso Ruizpalacios Alonso Ruizpalacios (born 1978) is a Mexican film director. Biography Ruizpalacios was born and raised in Mexico City. He studied stage directing in Mexico City, before moving to London where he trained as an actor at RADA. Ruizpalacios writes a ...

' ''

Güeros ''Güeros'' is a 2014 Mexican road comedy-drama film directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios. Set in Mexico City in 1999, the film tells the story of three restless teenagers searching for a folk-rocker during the Mexican capital's student strike. The fil ...

'' won the previous year). Ripstein dedicated the award to his son, "who will surely be the fourth generation of our family to make films because he loves it". The film opened on 150 screens in Mexico on 4 December 2015, and was selected to represent the country at the

in the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

category. About the process of receiving an Academy Award nomination, Ripstein said: "Much lobbying is required; unfortunately, film quality is not always decisive". The nominees that year represented Colombia, France, Jordan, Denmark, and Hungary (the eventual winner).

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 92% approval rating based on 24 reviews, with a rating average of 7.7 out of 10. According to Peter Debruge of ''Variety'', "Ripstein allows long stretches to go by in near-silence, gradually letting the tension build as the SUV travels farther south, deeper into potentially dangerous territory". Andrew Pulver of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' gave ''600 Miles'' three stars out of five, praising Roth's performance and calling the film a "pretty enterprising movie, subtly constructing its power relationship while not losing its grip on the basic sense of tension".

Awards and nominations

Ariel Awards

The

Ariel Award The Ariel Award ( es, Premio Ariel) is an award that recognizes the best of Mexican cinema. Given annually, since 1946, by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC), the award recognizes artistical and technical excel ...

s are awarded annually by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences in Mexico. ''600 Miles'' won two awards out of 13 nominations. , - , rowspan="13" scope="row",

58th Ariel Awards The 58th Ariel Awards ceremony, organized by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences (AMACC) took take place on May 28, 2016, at the National Auditorium in Mexico City. During the ceremony, AMACC presented the Ariel Award in 26 categories ...

, scope="row", ''600 Miles'' , scope="row", Best Picture , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein , scope="row",

Best Direction The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly rename ...

, , - , scope="row",

, rowspan="2" scope="row", Best Actor , , - , scope="row",

, , - , scope="row", Noé Hernández , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Supporting Actor , , - , scope="row", Carlos Jacques , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Art Direction , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein, Santiago Pérez Rocha , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Editing , , - , scope="row", Alejandro Vázquez , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Special Effects , , - , scope="row", Edgardo Mejía , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Visual Effects , , - , scope="row", Alejandro de Icaza, Federico González Jordán , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Sound , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein, Issa López , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Original Screenplay , , - , scope="row", Thal Echeveste , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Make-Up , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best First Feature Film , , -

Diosas de Plata

The Diosas de Plata are awarded annually by the Cinematographic Journalists Guild in Mexico (PECIME). ''600 Miles'' received two awards out of six nominations. , - , rowspan="6" scope="row", 45th Diosas de Plata , scope="row", ''600 Miles'' , scope="row", Best Picture , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein , scope="row", Best Director , , - , scope="row",

, scope="row", Best Actor , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein, Issa López , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Screenplay , , - , scope="row", Santiago Pérez Rocha, Gabriel Ripstein , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best Editing , , - , scope="row", Gabriel Ripstein , rowspan="1" scope="row", Best First Feature Film , , -

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:600 Miles 2015 films 2015 drama films 2010s Spanish-language films Mexican drama films Films about Mexican drug cartels Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in fiction 2010s Mexican films