Chile / Netherlands 2024, 77 min, Spanish, Hebrew & English subtitles
Toto is one of Chile’s last remaining gold diggers. Come rain, shine, snow, sleet, he dutifully earns his keep doing hard physical labor, always making sure to reward himself with seven spoonfuls of sugar in his coffee. At 60, he is not the man he once was, yet despite his weariness and failing health, he cannot retire because he does not qualify for social security. His son Jorge, a local rodeo champion, aims to fix this by building a gold-mining machine. Will a wheel and an engine replace a man’s scarred, ailing hands? In his impressive, beautifully and delicately crafted debut film, years in the making, the filmmaker patiently observes the arduous, repetitive work of mining, panning, and weighing, bringing to the screen an unsung hero, a rational man of action unafraid to shed a tear.
The screenings of this film have been made possible through the generous support of Institut Français d’Israël.
Previous Festivals: IDFA, Hot Docs, DOC NYC, Guadalajara IFF
