La picada (en)

La picada

Selection: 

Director: 

Felipe Zúñiga

Country: 

  • Costa Rica

Format: 

Feature film

Type: 

Documentary

Script writer(s): 

Felipe Zúñiga

Synopsis: 

Ros Meri, her son and the three Ulloa brothers are the only inhabitants of the Turrialba National Park. There, in the foothills of the most active volcano of Costa Rica, their lives are in danger. Today they struggle against abandonment, the impotence of having to leave the only place where they have lived, and the history of a whole town that today falls apart. Since 2007, the Turrialba Volcano became active with the expulsion of ash and toxic gases.
Although for the rest of the country the volcanic activity went unnoticed, the towns located at the slope of the volcano suffered fatal consequences. La Silvia, La Picada and La Central have irreparable damage in their infrastructure, and its territory is considered incompatible with human life. From those lands: ideal for livestock, with dozens of houses, with a school, church and active social dynamics: only the memory remains.

Visual concept: 

Answer why a settlement at the slope of an active volcano is still important in a person's life, make a portrait of a village that no longer exists, remember with the image how the day to day of its inhabitants was, understand what they did, how they lived, where they went, and find the corners they visited. These are the main pillars to be presented by our documentary; the ones we intend to cover based on an intimate treatment that counteracts the greatness of nature against our smallness as human beings.