How Long Is “Southern District”?

An upper class family slips into decline in this drama from Bolivian filmmaker Juan Carlos Valdivia. Carola (Ninon Del Castillo) lives in an exclusive neighborhood in La Paz, where she shares her home with her children after splitting up with her husband. Her oldest son Patricio (Juan Pablo Koria) is sullen and obsessed with sex, making out with his girlfriend Carolina (Luisa De Urioste) at every time and pestering Carola to get him more condoms. Daughter Bernarda (Mariana Vargas) is an out-of-the-closet lesbian who doesn't get along with Carola, who openly disapproves of her girlfriend Erika (Glenda Rodriguez), convinced she's beneath the family's standards. And six-year-old Andres (Nicolas Fernandez) is strongly attached to his mother and often drifts into a world of his own, talking with his imaginary friend and hopping from his tree house to the nearby rooftops. Carola's finances are in sad shape, and she's been forced to borrow money to keep up the household's expensive lifestyle, and as she becomes increasingly distracted, it's her servants Marcelina (Viviana Condori) and Wilson (Pascual Loayza) who are holding the house together. Zona Sur (aka Southern District) received its American premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.