SILVER

Costa Rican filmmaker Felipe Zúñiga skillfully blurs the line between documentary and fiction with his first feature-length film, a moving docu-portrait which takes place entirely in the village of La Picada, a tiny ghost town that sits at the foot of Costa Rica's most active volcano, all-but destroyed by its numerous eruptions. Rosmeri lives a solitary existence as La Picada's last remaining inhabitant. But despite the danger posed by the looming volcano, she refuses to leave her home, continuing to care for the animals left behind by displaced residents and running a coffee shop for the few souls who pass through. But pressure from her family and the public authorities is mounting, and despite Rosmeri's deep bond with land she lives on and with the fiery volcano itself, she faces an impossible choice between her home and her future. In the vein of recent documentary hit FIRE OF LOVE, LA PICADA captures the ineffable connection between humanity and the natural world and reflects on our symbiotic but often adversarial relationship with the very ground on which we live. Official Selection, 2021 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and 2022 Guadalajara International Film Festival. DIR/SCR Felipe Zúñiga; PROD Alejo Crisóstomo, Federico Lang, Alejandra Vargas Carballo. Costa Rica/Chile, 2021, color, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.