Cielo

Source: Luchadora Films

‘Cielo’

The UK’s Film Seekers has boarded Alberto Sciamma’s Bolivia-shot magical realism drama, Cielo, for world sales.

The shoot took place in the summer of 2023, across the high-altitude Altiplano and Yungas regions, near the capital of La Paz, while post-production has just completed in the UK.

It follows a young girl from a farm as she heads into the wilderness and embarks on a surreal journey in the hope of saving her mother from a life of suffering. Along the way, the girl discovers she has exceptional powers.

Fernanda Gutiérrez Aranda plays the lead in her first acting role. Further cast includes Fernando Arze Echelar, Cristian Mercado, Sasha Salaverry and Luis Bredow, plus a local team of cholita wrestlers.

It is produced out of the UK by John Dunton-Downer, Alexa Waugh, Bettina Kadoorie and Sciamma through Luchadora Films, with support from local Bolivian production company Pucara Films, and backing from private equity.

Spanish filmmaker Sciamma’s credits include 2018 travel comedy I Love My Mum. 

Cielo started with an image and a thought; an eight-year-old girl lost in an immense empty land, pulling a cart, carrying a mysterious cargo towards paradise,” said Sciamma, who praised the Bolivian location for its ”raw, vast and exotic beauty”.