The first feature by Costa Rican-Argentinian director Sofía Quirós Úbeda expands on her acclaimed 2016 short SELVA to create a magical, arresting coming-of-age fable set in a rainforest village on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. An orphan, 13-year-old Selva (Smashleen Gutiérrez, reprising the role she played in SELVA) lives with her tata, or grandfather (Humberto Samuels) and his wife and carer, the feisty Elena (Hortensia Smith), a woman with whom Selva has a loving, if prickly, relationship as the only real mother figure in her life. When Elena suddenly disappears, Selva is left alone to take care of her grandfather, as he slowly loses the will to live without his companion. But Selva is not alone. She often spends time with a mysterious woman in the woods — a woman only she is able to see — and she is aware of others in the jungle, too, liminal spirits from whom she learns ancient rituals. Exploring the boundaries between childhood and adolescence, life and death, the real and imagined and the magical and mundane, LAND OF ASHES is a powerful tale of one young woman's passage from childhood into adulthood and a moving exploration of mourning from a child's perspective. Winner, Best Film, 2019 Cairo International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2019 Cannes, Munich, Mumbai, Mar Del Plata and Rio de Janeiro film festivals. DIR/SCR Sofia Quiros Úbeda; PROD Mariana Murillo. Costa Rica/Argentina/Chile/France, 2019, color, 82 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

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