Jauja

Lisandro Alonso : 2014

The Ancient Ones said that Jauja was a mythological land of abundance and happiness. Many expeditions tried to find the place to verify this. With time, the legend grew disproportionately. People were undoubtedly exaggerating, as they usually do. The only thing that is known for certain is that all who tried to find this earthly paradise got lost on the way. An outpost in the depths of Patagonia in 1882, during the alleged "Conquest of the Desert", a genocidal campaign against the indigenous population of the region. Acts of savagery multiply on all sides. Captain Gunnar Dinesen of Denmark arrives with his fifteen-year-old daughter to take up an engineer position in the Argentine army. Being the only woman in the surrounding area, Ingeborg's presence causes a stir amongst the men. She falls in love with a young soldier and they flee together under the cover of darkness. Upon waking, Captain Dinesen learns of the situation and decides to drive into enemy territory to find the young couple. The story of a man's desperate quest to find his daughter, a solitary quest that leads us to a place outside of time, where the past is no longer and the future has no meaning. Lisandro Alonso's fifth feature was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2014.