Cielo

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.

“Sciamma takes his audience by the hand, leading us to the brink of paradise while respectfully acknowledging that he has to let each viewer make the final jump on their own terms.” —Christian Zilko, IndieWire

“A visceral, experiential type of viewing.” —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter

“An upliftingly spiritual escape.” —Ed Cunningham, Time Out

“A gorgeous, surreal film.”—Mona Tabbara, Screen International