Full of sunny and lively images, Tezoros is a story about children indulging their lust for life and curiosity. A cinematic journey into a place of optimism, beauty and wonder.
Siblings Dylan (6), Andrea (11) and Lucas (2 and a half) arrive in a fishing community on Mexico’s Pacific coast. They befriend some local children and set off on a journey of discovery in search of a long-lost pirate loot. Armed with their intelligence, a Tablet, and some maps, these children are given freedom to go their own ways and together find something much more valuable than a buried treasure.
“Children have always been around in my life and in my films. I have always trusted my intuition and felt at ease when directing scenes with them. Enjoying the process and delighted in their presence. But it had never come to my mind to make a film for children. Nor had I imagined directing scenes with so many of them, with ages ranging from 3 to 11, with many 6-year-olds. Shooting Tesoros was a challenge, of course. More so because I really wanted to tell the story from a child’s point of view, in which playing games is the natural method of apprehending the world. I wanted to tell this story at their pace; to give it the rhythm they’d bring to the narrative. To portray their magical minds and imagination, so inventive in going back and forth from reality to fantasy.” (María Novaro)
María Novaro
Having graduated in film from the University of Mexico, Novaro furthered her studies at Sundance/Utah and EICTV/Cuba. In the late 1970s she made documentaries with the Colectivo Cine-Mujer. Her second feature, Danzón, screened at the Cannes Film Festival and her Una isla rodeada de agua short was purchased by MOMA. Her first film for children, Tesoros, received its world premiere at the Berlin FF (Generation Section).
filmography (selection)
1982 Conmigo la pasaras muy bien (short)
1986 Una isla rodeada de agua (short)
1988 Historias de ciudad
1988 Azul celeste (short)
1989 Lola
1991 Danzón
1994 El jardín del Edén
2000 Sin dejar huella
2010 Las buenas hierbas
2017 Tesoros