Tótem

Awarded the Berlinale's Ecumenical Jury Prize, the dazzling film brings the entire universe together into one day, under one roof.

The events are presented from the perspective of a seven-year-old Sol, who finds herself in the thick of nerve-wracking preparations for a family celebration. Someone is drinking too much, a pie gets burned, the neighbourhood woman casts out evil spirits, and a seemingly innocent verbal exchange can trigger an explosion. Sol explores a house full of nooks and crannies, getting a little bored, eavesdropping a little and waiting for the moment when she can go see her dad. In the crumbs of everyday life, in the way the cluttered house is lit, in childlike observations, Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés constructs her totem: a cinematic myth, a portrait of an ancestor, an image connecting the living to the spirits. The intimate perspective expands unnoticed, and the family

Małgorzata Sadowska