Prime Video today puts online Medellin, a French comedy directed by Franck Gastambide which takes us on a journey to Colombia.
What is it about ?
Pablito is a young Youtuber fascinated by Pablo Escobar. He decides to realize his dream by going to Medellin in the footsteps of the drug baron. A few days later, it is through a video posted on his social networks that the world discovers that Pablito is in the hands of dangerous narcos, who demand a huge ransom to free him. “Plata o Plomo!”.
But what the Narcos don’t know is that Pablito has a big brother and that big brother has a plan as simple as it is completely insane: to assemble a team, to raid Colombia to face the men of the cartel and bring back his healthy little brother. and except.
Rififi among the narcos
Franck Gastambide turned to Prime Video to broadcast his fourth feature film as a director. After setting up his camera in Pattaya then Marseille, the Frenchman takes us this time… to Colombia. Direction Barrio Escobar in Medellin, a city infamous for hosting the famous drug trafficker. A unique cinema location, as he told us:
“The theme of the film being a little about Pablo Escobar, I inquired about the most “escobarian” places in this incredible city and I was taken to this neighborhood called the barrio Pablo Escobar, because it had built. It’s an old dump.
To our surprise, no one was filmed there. Not really for security stories. But because this district has left a bad memory in the city. The vast majority of this country hates Escobar and rightly so.
But in this district, the inhabitants continue to have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with him. But there was no question of making a film about the glory of Escobar“.
With Medellin, Gastambide remains true to his style by offering platform subscribers a comedy that is a little schoolboy but offers us its share of action. Whether at the wheel of a sports car or running on the roofs of houses, he and his actors give us two hours of frantic spectacle.
“We added lots of complexities. That’s what makes this film special. We couldn’t shoot there without having a scene where we run on its mythical tin roofs. I had to set a motorcycle chase down those endless stairs.”
The director surrounds himself with his lifelong friends on this new project – from Ramzy Bedia to Anouar Toubali via Brahim Bouhlel. And new actors including Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), who plays the big bad guys, and Mike Tyson, who offers himself a very small role but who will have marked the filming. “He asked who he was going to star with and the IMDBs of all the actors!”Gastambide also revealed to us.
If you’ve enjoyed the actor-director’s previous films, then you’re bound to appreciate Medellin’s style. Check it out today on Prime Video.