This 1998 film by Víctor Gaviria has risen to cult status in Colombia. While it is chaotic and filled with characters, the story focuses on Monica (Leidy María 'Lady' Tabares), a 13-year-old who lives on the streets and makes money selling flowers to couples in restaurants. The movie begins with ten-year-old Andrea (Mileider Gil) running away from home after receiving repeated beatings from her mother. She tracks down her friend, Monica, who had promised to help her if things ever got too bad at home.
We are rapidly introduced to Monica’s girl gang of rose sellers and roommates as well as her drug-dealing boyfriend and his glue-huffing protégé and other various members of the city’s underworld. The pacing is fast from start to finish, accurately portraying the chaos of life on the streets. The plot slows for a moment when the girls wake up in their tiny apartment and make plans for the next day. It quickly picks up again as parents arrive seeking missing daughters and everyone prepares for Christmas festivities.
I cannot understate how good this film was. While the chaotic pacing and characterization were a bit jarring at first, they were so well executed as to seem real. It was like meeting someone’s friend group at a party for the first time. Gaviria’s eye for color and human movement really shines in this film. The city seems all at once far too real and completely fantastic. It’s like a Colombian A Clockwork Orange in the ways it portrays delinquency as human reactions (and overreactions) to societal problems.
What I loved most about this film is the human way it portrays addiction and drug abuse, especially in children. In an era when national leaders across the world were trying to blame children for society’s problems, Gaviria held our nose to the problem and asked ‘Would you not seek an escape from this?’ The use of magical realism during glue hallucinations is a special artistic touch. This is a tragic film that deals with heavy topics including beating children, child drug addiction, pedophilic abusers, homelessness, and murder.
Despite that, it is a powerful portrayal of those our society leaves behind and their very human struggles to stay above water and help each other even in such poverty and depravity. The Rose Seller is an outstanding drama that belongs in any public library film collection.