CM 2023

Colombian Film Fund (Development, Prod., Intl. Participation, Distr.)

Hubert Bals Fund

Ibermedia

Own investment

The Landscapes That You Seek

Las Tierras que te Buscan

CineMart 2023 - Las tierras que te buscan

Goals at CineMartWe hope to find co-producers mainly from France and the Benelux region that can contribute with financing and post-production facilities. We are also interested in meeting financial partners along with sales agents and distribution partners at the international level. SynopsisIn Bogot&aacute;, Laura (25) is at the dazzling funeral party of her deceased best friend, along with some friends and family, all in a vibrant and entrancing party. The night after, Laura sees the spirit of her best friend. He looks real but he is dead. She asks her granny about this, realising that some women in her family can see the spirits of their loved ones after they die. But she never saw the spirit of her brother Camilo, who disappeared ten years ago. Does it mean he is still alive? Laura tries to reopen the investigation about his brother&rsquo;s disappearance. At a pre-Christmas celebration at her granny's house, Laura meets her cousin Javier. When Laura's mother discovers that Laura has reopened the case, an unexpected discussion bursts; Javier confesses that he went searching for Camilo to the jungle where he disappeared. She asks him to take her there.Laura and Javier embark on an enthralling quest through dense mountains in search of Camilo's trace. Ghostly villages and strange stories told by their inhabitants melt into the landscapes while riding a motorbike.They arrive to San Benito, a jungle village with a magical and strange atmosphere. Accidentally she encounters the local militia. They tell her that Camilo was part of a group of men tricked by soldiers who killed and disguised them as guerrillas as if they had died in combat, a &ldquo;false-positive&rdquo;. Shocked, Laura tells Javier, whose guilt grows, since he was doing the conscription when that happened. Irritated and unsettled, Javier leaves.Laura wants to find Camilo's lost soul. She seeks refuge in the jungle and asks help from the spirits of the jungle and her ancestors. As she awakes, a panther looks at her and talks to her telepathically, guiding her to a village in the deserted plains where the lost souls run free. Upon arriving, she listens to sounds and voices, but it&rsquo;s all empty. She seeks shelter around a fire and whispers to Camilo's spirit. Her brother&rsquo;s spirit appears in front of her, surrounded by many other spirits. The house and the village are now filled with spirits. Laura dialogues with him and they both together find a way for his soul to finally leave. Camilo's spirit can finally depart in peace, having visited his family for the last time before transforming into wind, soil, magma, and finally into the void. Through a hypnotic voyage, Camilo's spirit returns in the shape of a stone that now makes part of the mountain's landscape where Laura walks, going home in peace. Director&rsquo;s BiographyJuanita Onzaga (1991) is a Colombian filmmaker and visual artist currently based between Bogot&aacute;, Brussels and Mexico. In her films, Juanita combines fiction and non-fiction elements, touching the importance of memory, death and imagination, creating poetic tales that reflect different ways of perceiving reality within strong political contexts. Her work explores the crossroads between mysticism, ancestral knowledge, transformation of trauma from violent conflict, the dreamworlds, animism, futurism, technology and dance. Her first short film The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do premiered at Berlinale Generation 2017, where it won the Jury Prize for Best Short; the film was also selected at San Sebastian, Busan, and more than 40 festivals, obtaining the VAF wildcard and multiple awards. In 2018, her second short film Our Song to War&nbsp;premiered at the Quinzaine des R&eacute;alisateurs at Cannes and was selected for more than 80 international festivals, such as Clermont Ferrand, IDFA, and DokLeipzig, winning multiple prizes.Her most recent short film Tomorrow Is A Water Palace premiered at IFFR 2022 as part of the Ammodo Tiger Competition and screened at the Museum of Modern Art of New York as part of Movies from Earth.

Marginal Cine

Laura hasn’t heard from her brother for years. As she grows into womanhood, her intuition opens doors to the past, becoming her only tool against fear and uncertainty, opening and changing her perception of reality. This pushes her into a physical and metaphysical quest through Bogotá and Colombia's mystic mountains and mysterious jungles in search of the spirit of her lost brother.

Juanita Onzaga