The Mexican film El Diablo Fuma “The Devil Smokes” (and Keeps the Burnt Match Heads in the Same Box), by Ernesto Martínez Bucio, won the award for Best First Film at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, February 22nd.
The film is about five children left alone with their grandmother and begin to get involved in unfortunate events with the neighbors while absorbing her fears.
At the awards ceremony it was indicated that El Diablo fuma was a film that was a reminder of the sacred responsibility of protecting the beauty and innocence of children.
“We have seen the annihilation of thousands of children as mere collateral damage by political forces,” it was mentioned at the contest.
When Ernesto Martínez Bucio went up on stage to thank the award that returns to Mexico after 10 years, when 600 Miles by Gabriel Ripstein triumphed in 2015, he was visibly moved.
“It is a story from our hearts told by five children who changed my life two years ago. If you have to choose between fear and love, always choose love, please,” said the director.
The award has a prize of 50 thousand euros (approximately one million pesos, the twentieth part of the average cost of a national film), contributed by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten), a society dedicated to protecting film and television rights.
