Project Description
Dance ClassesAndrés Burgos
Colombia
Andrés Burgos, born in Medellín, Colombia in 1973, is a novelist and director and writes screenplays for movies and telenovelas. The film adaptation of his novel, SOFÍA AND THE BLOCKHEAD, won the Special Award of the Jury of the Cartagena de Indias Film Festival 2012. In his very diverse novels, Burgos proves his wide range of skills and his gift for empathising with his characters in an authentic way. Currently Burgos lives in Mexico City.
Andrés Burgos is one of the 25 Best Kept Secrets revealed at the Guadalajara/Mexico Book Fair in 2011.
© Alejandro López//
Dance Classes for Office Workers
Amalia is a woman in her forties. She is the secretary of the CEO of Suministros Vallejo, a family business that is going through difficult times. Organised and efficient, she nevertheless lacks sympathy, a quality needed to keep inopportune visitors at bay. She is implacable. Amalia leads her life in her own way, with defined boundaries, narrow but comfortable. And predictable. She seems to be happy with this, thinking that she does not need anything else. Until one day she meets Lazaro, a maintenance technician who comes to her office to fix something. His character is the absolute opposite of hers; his spontaneity and tendency towards chaos awaken unexpected feelings in her. So much so that from then on she begins to invent things that need fixed, or even damaging them herself, with the sole purpose of having him around. Knowing that he loves to dance, she also starts to attend dance classes…
In Dance Classes for Office Workers (“Clases de baile para oficinistas”) Burgos proves again his wide range of skills and his gift for empathizing with his characters in an authentic and original way, making his readers laugh out loud and start thinking deeply about what it means to live.
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Sofía and the Blockhead
Sofía and the Blockhead (“Sofía y el terco”) is the story of one last big dream. For years now, Sofía has been asking her stubborn husband to take her out of their mountain village on a trip to the sea, so many years that the two of them have grown old. And so Sofía, her best friend Mercedes and the silent David come up with a plan… A delightful novel about desires and happiness achieved late in life.
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Fight Manual
In a refreshing style, Fight Manual (“Manual de pelea”) tells the captivating story of a boy growing up in 1990s Medellín. Fourteen-year-old Santiago’s main interests are girls, his standing in the school pecking order and soccer. But while the fights in the schoolyard are still fought with fists, the brutal laws of the narcotics mafia have long since taken over in the rest of society. In an almost innocent, humorous tone, Burgos describes the end of a childhood.
RIGHTS
NOVELS
La muerte de Fernando Vallejo
Medellín: Tragaluz Editores
Dance Classes for Office Workers (“Clases de baile para oficinistas”)
Bogotá: Literatura Random House (PRH) 2018, 169 p.
Film directed by Andrés Burgos, entitled “Amalia, la secretaria”
Starring Marcela Benjumea, released 2018
Participation in several festivals such as Havana (Cuba), Fortaleza (Brazil), Tucumán (Argentina), Mill Valley (USA)
30,000 spectators in Colombia so far
Sofía and the Blockhead (“Sofía y el terco”)
Bogotá: Alfaguara 2012, 208 p.
(incl. screenplay and photos)
Film directed by Andrés Burgos
Audience Award of the 21st Latin American Festival of Biarritz 2012
Move (“Mudanza”)
Bogotá: Alfaguara 2008, 190 p.
Never in Cinemas (“Nunca en cines”)
Bogotá: Norma 2005, Alfaguara 2011 (e-book), Rey+Naranjo 2012, 240 p.
Fight Manual (“Manual de pelea”)
Bogotá: Norma 2004, Alfaguara 2011 (e-book), Rey+Naranjo 2012, 255 p.
Argentina: Letranómada
ANTHOLOGIES
Calibre 39
Bogotá: Villegas Editores 2007
Una ciudad partida por un río: Cuentos de Medellín
Bogotá: Planeta/Instituto Cervantes 2007
Lugares ajenos. Relatos del desplazamiento
Medellín: Universidad EAFIT 2001
SCREENPLAYS
Sofía and the Blockhead (“Sofía y el terco”)
2012, directed by Andrés Burgos
Special Award of the Jury of the Cartagena de Indias Film Festival, Colombia, 2012
Official competition Biarritz Film Festival, France, 2012
World Cinema section, Busan Film Festival, Korea, 2012
La prepago
TV Series, 2011
Hasta que la plata nos separe
TV series, 2005-2007
Gajes del oficio
2000
