Once upon a time, somewhere in southern Chile, Maria escaped from a cult of German religious fanatics. She took refuge in a house in the woods and the house, as if in a dream, reacted to Maria's feelings and transformed her stay into a nightmarish experience.
The Brothers Grimm meet David Lynch in this dark and daring animated film. Filmmakers Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León evoke Colonia Dignidad, an infamous torture colony operating during the Pinochet regime, and use stop-motion techniques with elements of various fables, photography, drawing, sculpture, and stage performance, to create a unique film about one of Chile’s darkest periods.
Feature Debut
You can learn more about the dark history of Colonia Dignidad in the award-winning documentary Songs of Repression by Estephan Wagner and Marianne Hougen-Moraga, also screened in our program this year.