An original comedy full of tenderness and melancholy. ‘Fat girls are not loved, they only long for it.’ That is the last thing that Domingo ‘El Santero’ (the holy statue maker) and his friend Pepelucho listen to in the Corajuda bar, before the evil ‘Sapo Estívaris’ orders them to make a full-size statue of the Madonna. He also asks them to transport the statue to San Mateo, a lost village in the heart of the curious Yungas jungle. This also marks the start of a journey through the feelings of the characters. Joaquin, a gambler who always tempts fate, has heard the conversation and offers to transport the statue in La Ramona, an old truck on loan. As soon as the Madonna is finished, the journey begins. From the town at 4300 metre, they descend to the tropics where the nature and the mutual difference ensure a tense balance. Faith in God and gambling result in a surprising dénouement in which any realisation of reality threatens to disappear. Director Marcos Loayza: ‘In the film, two codes of honour are juxtaposed: that of Domingo and his popular religiousness and that of Joaquin, inculcated with his belief in danger and the honour of the gambler.’
