ALMAMULA

“He’s not the first boy who’s missing in the forest. The boy that was with him says that a monster has taken him.”

Santiago del Estero, northern Argentina. When Nino is deemed a bad influence to the other boys in his neighbourhood and has to endure homophobic attacks on the streets, his parents temporarily move the family to the countryside. Away from the city, Nino wanders in a forest supposedly haunted by the Almamula, a monster that takes those who commit carnal sins and impure acts. It’s summer: the bodies sweat, the line between dream and reality becomes blurry. A boy disappears. In a world surrounded by whispers, unspoken desires and prayers, Nino’s curiosity and impulses surface. As an escape from a reality flooded with toxicity, repressions, interdictions and imminent violence, the hidden and sensuous mysteries of the forest become increasingly attractive to Nino.