An act of memory and a tribute to Colombian cinema, that is Anhell69. Director Theo Montoya recently revealed the details of his feature film that will participate in the Venice Film Festival's Critics' Week.

Anhell69 is the first feature film by Montoya, a director from Medellín who has dedicated his work mainly to themes of memory, youth and, of course, his city. This film, which moves between documentary and fiction, is no exception and, according to his production company Desvío Visual, "explores the dreams, doubts and fears of an annihilated generation, and the struggle to continue making films." 

"The film talks about many things, about a queer generation in Medellín, and among that, it also talks about the legacy of cinema. I was very interested in building a metaphor of how the knowledge of a director like Victor Gaviria, who has been the influence of almost all the directors here, was transmitted to a younger director, what I do is pay homage to him," Theo told Caracol TV. 

Despite being his first feature film, Montoya has prior experience at major film festivals around the world. His short film Son of Sodom (Hijo de Sodoma) competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2021. 

"Anhell69 is a complex film in some ways, because it is not a fiction, but has more of the documentary film and cinema of this type is somehow undervalued, so it is very gratifying to bring a film of these characteristics to a class A festival, where usually these types of bets are not taken into account in their selections," the director told CineVista about his arrival at Cannes.

At Critics' Week, Anhell69 will compete for the IWONDERFULL Grand Prize, awarded to the best film, which grants a prize of 5,000 euros, and also for The Film Club Audience Award, which gifts 3,000 euros to the winner.