Cielo

What does it take to get to heaven? What’s more, what can/should we expect if we’re able to get there? Will it live up to the beliefs we hold about it, especially the promises and expectations attributed to it? Those questions are important ones that many of us ask ourselves, but the answers are especially relevant to those who have experienced difficult lives here on the terrestrial plane. And, in this fairytale-like fable from writer-director Alberto Sciamma, that’s precisely what a hopeful young indigenous girl named Santa (Fer Monserrat) hopes to find out for herself. The enigmatic youngster from Bolivia’s desolate altiplano (high plateau) and her long-suffering mother, Paz (Carla Arana), have endured their share of trials and tribulations, especially at the hand of their abusive, uncaring, self-absorbed father/husband, Julio (Juan Carlos Aduviri). But, after eight years of this ongoing ordeal, Santa finally takes matters into her own hands and kills him with a blow to the head using, ironically, a heart-shaped rock. And, somewhat shockingly, she subsequently slays her mother (seemingly with Paz’s consent) while the two engage in an apparently joyful dance to celebrate Julio’s demise. But there’s a method to this seeming carnage (after tall, this is a fairytale, and we all know how grotesque their storylines can be): Santa believes there’s a better place for her and Paz – cielo (heaven) – and she plans to take herself and her mom’s salt-preserved corpse there. And, given Santa’s apparent mastery of certain kinds of magical powers (thanks to a fish that supposedly lives inside her belly), she’s determined to make this dream a reality. She thus sets off on an odyssey across the altiplano with the facilitation of a kindly priest (Luis Bredow), the help of a troupe of lady wrestlers led by the fierce but compassionate La Reina (Mariela Salaverry) and the backing of an initially befuddled (but later empathetically helpful) small town police chief (Fernando Arze Echal...