Rodrigo and his friends, restless teens in Medellín’s hillside shantytowns, spend their days stirring up trouble. But Rodrigo has dreams of playing rock and roll. He rallies his friends to form a punk band—which emerges as their salvation from a web of aimlessness, violence, drugs, and fear.

The first Colombian film to compete for the Palme d’Or, Víctor Gaviria’s blistering feature debut oozes with the rage and apathy of disaffected youth. Snatches of punk music gesture at an urgent and vital need to release pent-up despair, but also underline the raw beauty glimpsed among ruins.