Cielo abierto

Demonstrating the power of Slow Cinema, Cielo abierto is a portrait of a difficult meeting of worlds.

A Peruvian father labours patiently, chipping at the white volcanic stone that forms an extraordinary landscape. His son is part of the modern world: he uses cameras and drones in order to create the digital model of a church on a computer. Separated by the mysterious death of the wife/mother figure in the family, these men do not connect. And yet their paths cross in a ghostly manner, as do their professions: each in their own way works with textures and volumes, sensations and perceptions. Can the realm of digital art recreate and revivify the old world? Can it also awaken hearts grown lonely and cold?

Cielo abierto is the debut feature of Felipe Esparza Pérez, whose shorts Laguna negra and The Old Child have previously screened at IFFR, in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Largely plotless, eschewing conventional soundtrack music for the sake of a delicate aural design, Cielo abierto sensitises us to the cyclical alternation of day and night, the beauty of a human voice idly singing, and the open sky.

– Adrian Martin