The Soldier's Lagoon

Mist hangs over the páramo, a region of high-altitude marshes where, in 1819, Bolívar led his army in the fight for liberation from Spanish rule. Shot in 16mm, with dazzling in-camera effects, the film follows Bolívar's passage while Álvarez-Mesa simultaneously explores the intersection of political events with the ecosystems that host them. A chorus of voices bring forth Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives on colonial history, animating the páramo as a living and elusive archive.