Mara llena eres de gracia

MARIA FULL
OF GRACE
 Maria in the Flower
Factory.

Maria is a seventeen year old girl who lives in

Colombia with her mother, sister and nephew. At the
beginning of the film we see her commute to work
with her friend Blanca. Maria and Blanca work in a
flower factory where Maria takes the spines off of
roses. One day she feels sick but her boss refuses to
let her go to the toilet. Maria then vomits on the
roses and is taken to the sink to clean the roses
where she has a fight with her boss. Maria quits her
job and must go find a new one
 Taken for granted
On her way from the flower factory Maria is on her way home
when she walks past a pharmacy where her sister and mother
are buying medicine for her sick nephew. Maria must give her
own money that worked hard for to pay for the medicine. She
argues why her sister Diana should be responsible for her
own child. Maria's mother states she can keep the money
from her next paycheck and that she should stop being so
difficult. There Maria must admit that she had quit her job at
the factory. Her mother is furious and urges her to go back
and apologise to her boss so she can get her job back.
 Something to tell
Maria and Blanca go to a party in the town where
Maria meets Franklin.
The day after the party Maria meets up with her
boyfriend Juan where she tells him that she is
pregnant. Juan questions whether the child is his
and once Maria ensures him that it is his he asks her
to marry him. Maria asks whether or not he is joking
and if they did get married where would they live.
Both Juan and Maria's houses are too crowded to
have a young family in either of them.
Maria believes that this is absurd as they state they
do not love each other and Maria believes a
marriage between them would be pointless.
 Looking for work
On her way to Bogota to get work with her friend there she
meets Franklin from the party who offers her a lift on his
motorcycle to Bogota.
They stop along the way for drinks and Maria tells Franklin
why she is traveling to Bogota. Franklin mentions to her that
he has a possible job that she could take which involves
traveling. Maria questions him about it further and discovers
that the job is being a drug mule and taking cocaine into the
United States.
Even though the risks are huge the money was far more then
what she would have got from working at the flower factory
so she agrees to go on an interview with Javier, the boss.
 The interview
Maria goes to a bar with Franklin where she meets Javier. Javier is the boss and
employs mules to bring the cocaine into the US.
Javier asks Maria many questions during the brief interview. Some of these
questions including her age, previous occupation, is she rebellious and what her
relationship is with Franklin.
Javier then moves on to asking the health of her digestive system and stomach as
she would be carrying the cocaine internally.
Once Javier asked his questions he explained what would happen when Maria
would transport the drugs and where she would go to in the US.
Maria would be paid $100 per roll so 7/8 million pessos after deduction for her
documents such as visas. Javier gave Maria money as payment prior to the job.
Maria meets Lucy for the first time. Lucy is another drug mule who works for
Javier.
 Home truths
Maria returns home after the interview where she meets her sister
Diana. Maria and Diana get into an argument about money and
work and that Diana doesnt contribute any money to the household
while Maria does.
Maria proceeds to pull out the money that Javier gave to her when
Diana tells her to get her job in the factory back.
 Preparations
Maria goes to Lucy's house. Lucy tells Maria that she has
gone on two trips to the US and that she was supposed
to meet her sister Carla who lives there.
Lucy instructs to swallow a bowl of grapes so she can
practice before she has to swallow the pellets of
cocaine. Lucy states that if even one pellets opens in her
body she will die so she has to ensure that she carries
them correctly and not to eat anything for 24 hours
before she swallows the cocaine.
Maria returns home and has difficulty swallowing the
grapes whole without chocking on them.
 62 Pellets
Franklin comes to collect Maria and take her to a
pharmacy where she brought upstairs sees a man
preparing the pellets of cocaine. The pharmacist gives
her a tablet that with slow down her digestive system
and some anesthetic.
Maria meets Javier there and he give her a pellet to
swallow which she chokes on at first but insists that she
can swallow it. Maria swallows 62 pellets.
Once she took the pellets she went to the in Colombia
where she saw Blanca who is also a mule and Lucy.
Travel sickness
Whilst on the plane Maria, Blanca and Lucy start to feel
unwell. Lucy visibly sickest of the three with what looks
like a fever.
Maria loses the address of where she is staying so Lucy
gives Maria her sisters address so she can say where she
is staying in case she is interrogated.
Once off the plane the girls go to collect their bags
separately. Maria collects her bag but once she does she
is confronted by officer who asks where she came from
and where she was heading to. After Maria told him he
took her in to be interrogated.
 Interrogation
Maria was taken to be questioned by the police officers where they
asked her questions such as her reason for being in the States, where she
was traveling, how much her ticket was, where she got the money to buy
the ticket, what her job is and where she was staying.
After stating that she was traveling to New York, saved for her ticket
from working in the flower factory and would be staying with her sister
the second police officer believed that she didnt believe she bought the
ticket and that she was possibly bringing drugs into the country.
Maria was made sign a document allowing her to get an x-ray displaying
her stomach to see if she had consumed pellets of cocaine. Maria was
pregnant however so they weren't allowed to take an x-ray so she was
released.
Maria was then taken by Javier's men to the hotel along with Blanca and
Lucy.
 After Lucy
Lucy's condition began to deteriorate rapidly and she became
sicker. One morning Maria woke up to Javier's men taking
Lucy's body from the room whilst the bathroom was covered
in blood.
Maria took the pellets and her and Blanca travelled to the
Lucy's sisters address.
Blanca and Maria separated. Maria went into Carla's
apartment building and called into her stating that she was
Lucy's friend. Maria didn't tell Carla that Lucy was a drug mule
or that she was dead and Carla allowed Maria to stay with her
in her apartment.
 Don Fernando

Blanca appears at Carla's apartment hoping she can

stay like Maria did. Carla takes the girls to Don
Fernando where they are there to get a job but the
girls have an argument and Blanca takes out the
pellets of cocaine. Don Fernando realises what the
pellets are states that he will ring the authorities.
They state that they have a friend who they think
has been killed when a pellet burst inside her. So the
girls ask him to help find their friend. the girls never
state that their friend is Lucy, Carla's sister.
Good news, Bad news
After visiting Don Fernando Maria and Blanca get into an
argument which leads to them separating. Maria goes to a
Spanish speaking health clinic for women where she gets an
ultrasound and listens to her baby's heartbeat. Her baby is
healthy.
She returns to Don Fernando who has information on their
friend who was killed. He questions who the girl is so they can
contact the family in Colombia. Maria admits that the girl is
Lucy, Carla's sister. Don Fernando insists that Maria tell Carla
that Lucy has died.
Maria returns to Carla's apartment there Carla receives a
phone call from Don Fernando where he states that Lucy has
been killed and Maria and Blanca must come clean about what
kind of situation they are actually in.
 The end
Maria and Blanca go to the public phones where they contact
Javier's men. They give the pellets to them in exchange for
their payment.
Maria meets Don Fernando to give him so money so he can
give it to Carla so she can send Lucy back to Colombia.
Whilst with Don Fernando she goes into Lucy but Carla was
with her.
Blanca and Maria go to the airport to go back home to
Colombia but just before they board the plane Maria
hesitates. Blanca goes onto the plane whilst Maria stays in the
US.
Maria Catalino Sandino Moreno

Blanca Yenny Paola Vega

Lucy Guilied Lopez

CAST
Carla Patricia Rae
 CAST

Juan Wilson Guerrero

Franklin John Alex Toro

Don Fernando Orlando Tobn

Javier Jamie Osorio Gomez

 RESUMEN
Tiene Maria diecisiete anos. Vive en Colombia con su hermana, madre y
sobrino en un casa pequeo. En el comiendo de pelcula trabaja Maria en
el fabrica de flores con su amiga Blanca. Deja Maria la trabaja porque no
te gusta la jefe.
Conoce Maria de Franklin un noche en un pueblo. El da siguinte dice
Maria de Juan para esta embarazada.
Deci Franklin ese un trabajo disponible perro un trabajo lleva
drogas en America.
Conoce Maria nuevo personas ambos peligroso y
amable. Fue Lucy matada y deja Maria con drogas porque te gutsa
encontra hermana de Lucy, Carla. En el fin de pelcula Maria se quedara
en America y voy Blanca de Colombia.
 REFLECTION
I loved this film. It was interesting to see how Maria was willing to go through such a dangerous experience
with so much risk to her own health as well as her baby's. The fact that money is so precious to her and what
we would as such a small amount could buy a house in Columbia as said by Blanca. I feel as though this mass of
money manipulated Maria into doing things she wouldnt normally do.
Lucy's death was heart breaking we saw different people's reactions to it, the anger experienced by Maria and
the pure grief experienced by Carla. I thought it was important to show Lucy's death as it really conveyed how
dangerous it is to be a mule and the risk that ensues once you become one.
I learned about how willing people in deprived countries are to get money and a job even if the job is illegal
and has implications on their health and life but also their families.
I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in the Spanish language and would like to watch a
foreign film. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the lives of drug mules or drug traffickers.
I would give this film 4.5/5 stars as I loved it and it was really interesting but I wished we got to see what
happened to Maria after all of what happened with her child living in the US.