Totem

Original Title: Tótem 

Duration: 95 minutes

Country: Mexico

Language: Spanish, English with English Subtitles 

Director: Lila Avilés 

Clear to this child's eyes are her increasingly broken family, and that same brokenness diffused throughout the world around her. She sees the sadness that lurks beneath all the surface glamor: something very horrible is about to happen, but what is it? The world of grown-ups has forgotten not only joy, but also true loneliness; the hardest goodbyes to say are the ones yet to come, and the hardest wounds to heal are the ones that are hidden. Through the eyes of our protagonist, Sol, Totem leads us to unlock the truly distinctive fear of all the secrets that adults take great measures to hide away. 

Quote: 

“Avilés works in a generous, open-ended style, treating her characters as impulsive, occasionally contradictory souls with lives that continue when the cameras aren’t rolling — three-dimensional beings only partly revealed to us, each one hiding unknowable mysteries all their own.”-----Variety 

Awards: 

+ Berlin International Film Festival: 2023 Golden Berlin Bear Best Film Nominee 

+ Berlin International Film Festival: 2023 Winner Prize of the Ecumenical Jury 

+ Denver International Film Festival: 2023 WinnerKrzysztof Kieslowski Award, Best Feature Film 

+ Hong Kong International Film Festival: 2023 Winner Golden Firebird Award, Young Cinema 

+ Chicago International Film Festival: 2023 Gold Hugo Best Feature Nominee 

+ Gotham Awards: 2023 Nominee Gotham Independent Film Award, Best International Feature 

Post-Screening Event: 

+ Family-style Taco Party Catered by Las Palmas Supermercado y Taquiera