About: Eight-year-old Santa (Fernanda Gutiérrez Aranda) liberates her mother from the hands of an abusive father. Infused with the powers of a goldfish she swallowed whole, she sets off on a fantastical road trip toward a heaven in the sky she believes is as real as the ground beneath her. On her journey through the otherworldly Bolivian Altiplano, she tests the faith of a priest, befriends a troupe of cholita wrestlers, and clashes with a burnt-out cop grieving the death of his wife. Eyes firmly on the horizon, she leaves a trail of miracles in her wake and prompts her unlikely followers to question everything they believed was possible.
Shot on location in Bolivia with an eye-popping color palette, Spanish filmmaker Alberto Sciamma’s magical realist road movie bursts with empathy and wonder. Clint Worthington at RogerEbert.com calls it “a deeply sincere fantasy drama that can tug on even the firmest of heartstrings,” and Dennis Harvey at Variety praises its “considerable ambition, aesthetic beauty and bittersweet enchantment.”
Reaction: An extraordinary road trip through the stark natural wonders of Bolivia, as Santa, an eight year old with magical powers (and a live fish in her tummy), takes us on a trek through blazing-white salt deserts (with the body of her mother in a barrel on the back of a truck given to her by a priest), along treacherous mountain dirt roads (in a bus with traveling female wrestlers who have taken her in) and in a gritty jail in La Paz (where she wins the heart of a heavy-drinking cop who still mourns his late wife). And throughout it all, we buy into this really tall tale, thanks to the truly exceptional performance of the charming young actress Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda, in this, her first film role. Joyful and direct, she never resorts to cutesy-poo child actress tricks, and you root for her even as she does unexpected things, like smashing in the skull of her abusive father with a big boulder that she can barely lift. What she does after dancing a celebratory jig with her mother after telling her the deed is done is even more unexpected. This is a movie where you never know what is going to happen next, but with Santa as your guide, you know it will be surprising and often moving in unanticipated ways. The photography is breathtaking with saturated blue horizons, colourful costumes and star-studded night skies. A picaresque tale filled with elements of magic realism, Cielo is elevated by the most charming child performance to come along in ages. Highly recommended for people with a taste for something different. And when was the last time you saw a movie from Bolivia?
Rating: 7 out of 10
