Eréndira

Nobel-winning Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez wrote the screenplay for Eréndira, a 1983 drama that Ruy Guerra directed as a Mexican, French and West German co-production. Shot in Spanish, it runs about 103 minutes. Its story is that of García Márquez's 1972 novella, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother.

The story begins when young Eréndira, who lives with her grandmother, carelessly sets the house on fire. The grandmother decides the way to make up the loss is to prostitute her granddaughter. Cláudia Ohana plays Eréndira and Irene Papas the grandmother; the cast also includes Michael Lonsdale, Rufus and Pierre Vaneck. Guerra drew on another García Márquez story, Muerte constante más allá del amor, for the Senator Onésimo Sánchez subplot.

The original script predates the novella; when it was lost, García Márquez recreated it from memory for the film. Eréndira and her grandmother had briefly appeared in One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). Filming took place in San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Zacatecas. The film was shown at Cannes on 14 May 1983 and was selected as Mexico's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.