OSCURO ANIMAL New Auteurs

Gorgeously shot and paced with patient rigor, feature debut director Felipe Guerrero’s OSCURO ANIMAL follows three Colombian women who are all brutally affected by the country’s armed conflict. Rocio returns from a routine laundry trip to find her small village gutted; homeless, she travels to Bogotá (but not without more violence en route) and finds some solace when she strikes up a friendship with a young city girl. La Mona also finds herself heading to the city, after bravely freeing herself of the abusive paramilitary who has impregnated her. Nelsa, herself a paramilitary, is similarly at the lustful mercy of her fellow male soldiers; she too departs for Bogotá. Practically dialogue free and haunted by the painful silences of loss and trauma, this startling vision imagines women who have experienced the unimaginable, and yet still take their fates in hand, heading to a shared destination. — Beth Hanna