Fernanda Valadez’s feature debut will be seen by a wider audience…

Kino Lorber has acquired the North American rights to the Mexican filmmaker’s timely Mexican migrant drama Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares), which made its World Premiere on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Dramatic Competition. 

The film is set to roll out in theaters this summer followed by a VOD release on KinoNow.com and home video release.

Identifying Features marks the feature debut of Valadez, which tells the story of Magdalena, a mother who embarks on a journey in search of her son who disappeared en route to the US border. Traveling through the foreboding towns and landscapes of northern Mexico, she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors ramble together.

“We count on Sundance to elevate the worthiest independent films and especially reveal the dramatic power of documentaries,” said Richard Lorber, president and CEO of Kino Lorber. “But here’s a cinematic reminder how an exquisitely wrought narrative drama can go beyond even the best factual films to deliver the highest emotional impact. Fernanda Valadez’s devastatingly poignant work unpacks another dimension of human meaning beyond the numbing headlines. We are eager to bring her compassionate expose to audiences across North America.”Valadez’s short film 400 Bagswas featured in the Berlinale Talents Editing Studioand was nominated for Best Short at the Mexican Academy of Cinematic Arts’s Ariel Awardsin 2015, and was a finalist for the Student Academy Awardin 2015.