Rumble from the Gemstones (El rumor p las piedras)

A CNAC, El Rumor p las Piedras, ConTodo Producciones production. (Worldwide sales: CNAC, Caracas.) Created by Juliana Gomez, Jose Ernesto Martinez. Executive producer, Alejandro Bellame. Directed by Alejandro Bellame Palacios. Script, Valentina Saa, Bellame Palacios.With: Rossana Fernandez, Christian Gonzalez, Juan Carlos Nunez, Arlette Torres, Aminta p Lara, Veronica Arellano, Zapata 666, Laureano Olivares, Yonaikel Burguillos.Just one mother's struggles to boost her family in adverse conditions are introduced to vivid dramatic existence in "Rumble from the Gemstones," a social drama that fearlessly aims to fuse an authentic study of Venezuelan existence to some crowd-pleasing dramatic structure. Though sometimes excessively familiar and marred with a inclination to lapse into schmaltz, given its melodramatic story, this tidily plotted follow-as much as helmer Alejandro Bellame Palacios' more compact-scale debut, "The Colour of Fame," looks great, packs a psychological punch featuring an excellent perf from Rossana Fernandez inside a challenging central role. "Gemstones" should roll into The spanish language-speaking areas. Having seen her home destroyed and her daughter wiped out within the expensive surges that destroyed Venezuela's 1999 Vargas region, Delia (Fernandez) has moved to some cramped room inside a Caracas slum together with her mother, Raiza (Aminta p Lara), and her sons, teenage William (Christian Gonzalez) and 11-year-old Santiago (Juan Carlos Nunez). Delia works inside a chicken plant and it is saving for any new house, but to her chagrin, William is spending time with pistol-carrying lowlifes. Delia finds a gun under William's bed mattress and angrily throws it away, unknowingly endangering his existence because the weapon goes to gangleader El Mota (the wonderfully named Zapato 666). Delia has become confronted with a difficult decision that creates some real drama: Purchase the pistol and lose her possibility of a brand new home, or let William face his problem alone. After that, Delia's obstacles still stack up in an alarming rate. Although the easy dramatic option ended up being make Delia a straight-up heroine, the script is careful to exhibit she's no angel. Her worthy ambition -Body that's been belittled by some in Venezuela as revealing the pic's bourgeois ideology -- is to buy her family from the slums, but her ambition also makes her unaware of the methods of appalling disadvantage guy El Fauna (Laureano Olivares), who falls her into even more wretchedness. Other perfs are fine, with kid Nunez really entering their own following a disturbing scene by which Delia takes him to go to his father's grave the very first time Gonzalez is convincing. But Raiza is virtually unnecessary, her encroaching blindness doing little besides adding another layer of misery. The violence from the slums continues to be more legitimately and energetically made than here, but "Gemstones" is nevertheless frequently a visible treat, with a few striking night time shots from the city. Local street-gang argot (largely incomprehensive for individuals that do not utilize it), is prevented, which sacrifices some credibility but keeps the doorway open for pick-ups in other The spanish language-language areas. An offshoot, frequently overblown score reps the pic's poorest link, while a few incongruencies go undetected: A tattoo Santiago acquires as an indication of his growing wildness later just vanishes. A few of the high-passion dialogue is simply too redolent of Latin American soaps, though possibly fittingly for lives brought around the emotional edge. Pic's title refers back to the noise from the gemstones transported through the expensive surges, metaphorically underscoring the concept inside every ugly lump of rock is really a sculpture -- a factor of beauty -- waiting to emerge.Camera (color), Alexandra Henao editor, Moises Duran, Angel Manrique, Felix Colina music, Daniel Espinoza art director, Matias Tikas set decorator, Jerome Portier seem (Dolby Digital), Jose Guillermo "Bute" Marquez casting, Felix Colina, Guillermo Londono. Examined on DVD, Madrid, November. 22, 2011. (In Huelva Iberoamerican Film Festival -- competing.) Running time: 100 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com