What’s a spot if it’s not on a map? What’s a individuals in the event that they’re not acknowledged? Felipe Holguín Caro’s “La Suprema” asks these questions inside an intimate drama set in a distant Caribbean city in Colombia. La Suprema exists on no map and its Afro-Colombian inhabitants feels equally erased. Modest in its ambitions but brimming with an actual sense of place, this lush drama a couple of boxing match is a quiet revelation. It serves as a vivid portrait of a neighborhood aching for glory and, maybe extra importantly, for the dignity they’ve lengthy deserved.

Everybody in La Suprema is aware of of Anastasio Páez. He’s a boxer who’s making a reputation for himself on the world stage. His niece Laureana (Elizabeth Martínez) admires him from afar. It’s been some time since he left the city for good however his boxing expertise nonetheless encourage Laureana, who spends non-public moments in her room practising her left hook and her stance, photographs of her uncle tacked on to her mirror (and later hidden, lest her grandmother see her indulging in such unladylike actions). So when Anatasio is about to battle for the world boxing title, Laureana takes it upon herself to discover a manner for the city to observe the match stay.

The issue is nobody in La Suprema has a tv, not to mention electrical energy. That is largely a dirt-road city the place a couple of households go about their days not a lot ignoring the world outdoors as resigned to being ignored by it. And so begins a race to discover a strategy to get the previous and safe the latter — all earlier than the match airs in however a couple of days. It’s a problem that can require a lot of the city to return collectively, even because the gripes round La Suprema’s circumstances threat costing them witnessing the second of glory they nonetheless hope will lastly put them — actually and figuratively — on the map.

Such a premise alone might need made Holguín Caro’s movie play like a twee riff on any variety of small-town dramas the place community-driven efforts climax in some celebratory episode (as would the movie that may’ve targeted solely on Laureana’s boxing aspirations). But “La Suprema” merely makes use of the boxing match as a story anchor on which to spin a broader story concerning the perils and guarantees of success.

As the ladies within the city hustle to boost cash to purchase a TV on sale on the close by metropolis of Cartagena, points each private and cultural bubble up all through. There’s Laureana’s terse relationship along with her grandmother in the case of her gender presentation (the teenage woman hates attire and will get scolded for wanting like a tomboy). There’s the soured relationship with Anastasio’s former coach, Efraín (Antonio Jimenez), who has his causes for not even wanting to observe his former pupil’s large likelihood at glory. And, most urgent maybe is the poverty and abandonment that preserve La Suprema at midnight — all a results of insurance policies and politicians who don’t see match to speculate on this Afro-Colombian neighborhood. 

Holguín Caro and Andy Sierra’s script tries to shuttle between these numerous subplots with grace. Largely it succeeds, however typically it does really feel like “La Suprema” is attempting to juggle too many tonal shifts. Some bits involving two teenage boys’ try to repair a generator and later steal some electrical energy from a close-by neighbor play maybe a bit too broadly, whereas the quiet heart-to-heart moments between Efraín and Laureana can really feel like they belong to a completely totally different movie.

However when “La Suprema” settles right into a register the place it’s surveying the plush greenery of the city’s landscapes, the movie actually comes alive. Mauricio Vidal has a eager eye for capturing the Caribbean area’s pure magnificence, his formal framing giving cautious consideration to the best way the surroundings actually is a titular character right here. Likewise, there’s magnificence and resilience in pictures of girls singing and doing laundry in a close-by physique of water, as they present a contentment about who they’re and what they’ve. Who cares if a boy born there as soon as is now on TV for the world to see? 

The Afro-Colombian neighborhood, because the movie exhibits, is usually forsaken if not outright erased from each historical past and geography. Sports activities find yourself being one of many sole locations the place their achievements are celebrated. Becoming then that Holguín Caro would flip such a second of triumph and potential glory into an interrogation into the neglect individuals like Laureana and Efraín expertise of their on a regular basis lives. Playfully riffing on a feel-good style and turning it on its head with its highly effective ultimate moments, Colombia’s Oscar submission is a ravishing examine within the dignity of the individuals it depicts.