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Directed by Diego Luna and executive produced by Gael Garcia Bernal and John Malkovich, Network Releasing is delighted to announce the UK cinema release on 7th January 2011 of ABEL (15), a darkly funny, poignant and magical film about parental absenteeism in Mexico. It will open at selected cinemas including Curzon Soho, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Bristol Watershed and Showroom Sheffield. Diego Luna will be doing Q&As for 'Abel' at the Curzon Soho on Friday 7th January, Cornerhouse Manchester on Saturday 8th January and Filmhouse Edinburgh on Sunday 9th January 2011.

****                                                       ****

Empire                                                 Digitalspy.co.uk

**** "Excellent. A true original"             "Enigmatic and enticing"

Daily Mirror (The Ticket)                      Sight & Sound

"Blackly comic - you'll look at your kids in a new light after this"

BBC Radio 5

Christopher Ruiz-Esparza (a mere 9 years of age at the time of filming) stars as Abel, a young boy whose confounding behaviour and refusal to speak has landed him in a mental health facility. His single mother is convinced that a reunion between Abel and his younger brother and older sister would be the answer to repairing his condition, so she arranges for Abel's doctor to release the boy for a single week. Abel starts speaking the day after returning home but the joy of his mother quickly turns into confusion as the child starts speaking and behaving as a fully-grown adult - her missing partner. Not wishing to worsen his condition, his mother and siblings go along with Abel's unorthodox, strange behaviour. But then his father decides to show up...

Disturbing, surreal and darkly funny, ABEL deals with an important issue in Mexico - parental absenteeism - increasingly common as many Mexican men abandon their families to find work in the United States.

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