Contravia Films

Romero, a retired fisherman and a forgotten hero by the community, lives isolated in his home, surrounded by ghosts of the life he couldn't have, spirits that materialize before him as his real family. Alcoholic and schizophrenic, surviving on a daily basis. But deep down he feels the time has come to regain what he lost several decades ago, when he brought the oil curse to his own island, the lush Ciudad del Carmen. At the same time at the mysterious Estero Pargo, the goddess Ixchel has been reborn and seeks to mate with humans in order to continue the cycle of life.

In this poetic, richly allegorical debut by Colombian director William Vega, a teenage girl flees to a rundown inn after being driven from her home in the Andean highlands by civil war, as the violence engulfing the country creeps ever closer to her remote refuge. (TIFF)