Opening Gala: Kings of Nowhere

We open this year’s festival with a haunting and lyrical gem from Mexican director Betzabé García.

The construction of a dam turned the Mexican village of San Marcos into a waterlogged ghost town, but three families refuse to surrender their home to the flood. Even the constant, lurking threat of armed gangs roving the countryside and the loneliness of living amid ruins can’t deter them from their routines. They keep the tortillería open, weed the pavement in the town square, and rove the inundated streets in boats or on horseback. García’s observational approach brings out the humour and eerie beauty of their singular situation.

As protagonist Pani remarks, “In life there are no handles…we are floating in the universe.” Kings of Nowhere is the story of how a town of 300 families became three and how ordinary people survive and respond to the rising tide of fear.