Dana is the perfect woman until she decides to be free. She turns to prostitution. She must surrender her income to the leader of a human trafficking ring, but her daughter’s illness and a drug addiction prevent her from delivering her usual share. An unexpected event gives her the opportunity to stop obeying and take justice into her own hands. Ecuador’s Oscar entry is a powerful directorial debut.

“First-time writer-director Gabriela Calvache crafted a seductive, heartbreaking and scandalous portrait of the horrors of sex-trafficking in South America. (…) Calvache extracts vivid, raw and convincing performances from the entire cast, especially Colombian actress Noëlle Schönwald, who plays the heroic, anguished woman of the night,” (brazilianpress.com)

More information: https://www.widemanagement.com/la-mala-noche

Gabriela Calvache was born in Ambato, a small city in the Ecuadorean Andes. She wrote and directed two short films: EN ESPERA (ON HOLD) which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2011, and HAY COSAS QUE NO SE DICEN (THINGS YOU NEVER SAY) which premiered at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. Both films got selected for several festivals – in Guadalajara/Mexico and São Paulo/Brazil, among others. As a producer, she worked on several award-winning documentaries. LA MALA NOCHE (THE LONGEST NIGHT) is her debut feature film.