Miss Bala

Laura Guerrero is a young woman from Tijuana with one ambition: to be crowned in a state beauty pageant. Her situation changes when she and a friend visit a nightclub that is attacked by armed men. Her friend disappears, and when Laura approaches the police for help she is instead handed over to Lino Valdez, the head of a powerful drug cartel. Trapped between the criminals and the authorities, and fearing for her family, she is forced to carry out tasks for the gang while still trying to keep her place in the contest. What she witnesses during Mexico's drug war leaves her permanently changed.

Gerardo Naranjo directed the film, his third feature, and wrote it with Mauricio Katz. Stephanie Sigman plays Laura, with Noé Hernández as Lino and supporting turns from Jose Yenque, James Russo, Irene Azuela and Miguel Couturier. The film was produced by Pablo Cruz through Canana, with backing from Fox International Productions and Mexican public film funds, and it was released in October 2011.

It was a modest performer commercially, taking in around two million dollars worldwide, though it found a wider audience on the festival and home-viewing circuit. Critical response was warmer than the general audience reaction: it holds 7.2 out of 10 from 67 reviews, compared with 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb and 6.7 out of 10 on TMDB. Naranjo followed it with Viena and the Fantomes in 2020 and Son-in-Law in 2026.