‘Cielo’ review: A young girl embarks on a quest across Bolivia in this uncertain fable

Dir/scr: Alberto Sciamma. UK/Bolivia. 2025. 108 minutes 

Breathtaking landscapes, bravura cinematography and an enticing youngster lead go a protracted approach to bolstering Bolivian-set quest film Cielo. However in the end the movie is additional proof that the literary custom of magical realism too simply turns to kitsch when translated into visible photographs. This UK/Bolivia co-production is a departure for Spanish writer-director and style specialist Alberto Sciamma, who made his identify with pulp comedy-horror Killer Tongue (1996). Right here, Sciamma reinvents himself in additional high-minded arthouse mode, very approachably – however the movie exudes a definite preciousness, nearly offset by the no-nonsense power of younger debut lead Fernanda Gutiérrez Aranda.

Odd tone of fable-like innocence coupled with grim narrative parts

Cielo premiered at Portugal’s Fantasporto the place it gained the worldwide fantasy movie particular jury award, viewers award and finest cinematography, and now performs Fantasia following a berth at SXSW London. The movie’s excessively heartfelt tone is more likely to deter hardcore cinephiles however might attraction to a broader viewers – if nonetheless a distinct segment one. 

Cielo, which means ‘heaven’, is about and filmed in among the wilder landscapes of Bolivia, the place eight-year-old Indigenous lady (Gutiérrez Aranda) lives in austere rural environment together with her mother and father. A hanging opening shot exhibits her in opposition to the backdrop of mountains and a lake, by which she catches a big yellow fish which she promptly swallows complete. She then kills her father Julio (Juan Carlos Aduviri) with a heart-shaped stone, and stabs her mom Paz (Carla Arana), whom she crams right into a barrel, preserving the physique with scoopings from the huge salt flats close by. 

Macabre as this opening may appear, its grimness is artfully defused by the sunlit vividness of the visuals and by Gutiérrez Aranda’s winningly matter-of-fact method. Certainly, whereas flashbacks reveal the daddy to be a nasty ‘un, the lady proves to be on a compassionate mission relating to her mom, who she plans to revive to life later. Given a rundown truck by disillusioned village priest Father Jaime (Luis Bredow), the lady intends to succeed in a spot referred to as Heaven that she’s heard about.

Improbably driving her truck with utter confidence – we’re in a fairy-tale realm, in any case – Santa breaks down within the desert, however is rescued by a touring firm of feminine wrestlers. Later apprehended, the lady is questioned by small-town police captain Gustavo (well-established Bolivian display presence Fernando Arze Echalar). The world-weary Gustavo will ultimately discover redemption by way of the miraculous youngster – whom he involves name ‘Santa’, additionally the identify of the fish that she says remains to be alive in her stomach (confusingly, a number of fish get swallowed, regurgitated or killed, however all of them seem like manifestations of the identical everlasting piscine spirit). 

Cielo hits a excessive observe of stress and cinematic virtuosity when the wrestlers’ bus negotiates a precarious mountain street, a sequence with vertigo-inducing shades of The Wages Of Concern. From there, alas, the movie loses momentum, ending queasily in a danced affirmation of religious and feminist liberation set to a Bolivian rap quantity.

Visually, there may be plentiful invention, each in Alex Metcalfe’s images (together with geographic vistas typically artfully intensified, with panoramic, extremely colored nightscapes) and within the costumes and manufacturing design, with electrical reds, oranges and blues drawing on the colors of Bolivian people artwork. A rating showcasing marimba and pan pipes provides to a plausibly indigenous flavour.

However Cielo is uncertainly pitched, with its odd tone of fable-like innocence coupled with grim narrative parts. It’s solely tenuously that this may very well be thought of a household movie, whereas younger grownup audiences will certainly discover it too soft-centred. Cielo is extra more likely to ring a bell with older viewers who will not be averse to mystically-tinged sentiment.