Argentina / France 2023, 78 min, Spanish, Hebrew & English subtitles

Justina was brought to the castle at age five. All her life she cleaned, polished, scrubbed, and washed, and when the lady of the house passed away, she inherited the castle, the expansive grounds, and the cows, pigs, and goats that came with them. What seems at first like a rags-to-riches fairytale where the exploited indigenous girl finally gets her happily ever after, turns out to be far less glamorous. The castle, located in the Argentinian Pampas, is falling apart, and Justina cannot afford the repairs. While her daughter dreams of returning to Buenos Aires and becoming a racecar driver, Justina tries to find sources of income and navigate a long-distance relationship. Slowly, thoughts of leaving the vast place that was her home begin to arise. This beautiful documentary weaves a masterfully-crafted social drama imbued with a surrealistic tone and a bewitching atmosphere.

Previous Festivals: Berlinale

Martín Benchimol was born in Argentina in 1985. He studied cinema at the University of Buenos Aires and then specialized in cinematography. He directed two award-winning documentaries with co-director Pablo Aparo: LA GENTE DEL RIO (2012) which premiered at DOK Leipzig 2012, was nominated for Best Documentary 2013 at the 4th Cinema Tropical Awards, and participated in numerous festivals, and EL ESPANTO, which won the IDFA Award for Best Medium-length film in 2017, the Jury Award at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2018 (Mexico), the Silver Horn for Best Film at the 58th Krakovia Film Festival (Poland) and the Nou Talent Award at Docs Barcelona (Spain), among many other international and national awards. Martin was selected to make one of the first short documentaries for the ELEMENTAL collection by Sandbox Films (USA), A ROBUST HEART, which premiered at IDFA 2022. EL CASTILLO will be Martin’s solo feature film debut.

Production: Mayra Bottero, Gema Juárez Allen, Clarisa Oliveri
Production Company: Gema Films, SISTER Productions
Script: Martín Benchimol
Editing: Ana Remón
Cinematography: Nico Miranda, Fernando Lorenzale
Sound Design: Sofía Straface

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