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Tomás Gómez Bustillo: 'One of the first inspirations for the film was this image that came to my mind of this glowing figure in the middle of the dark' Photo: Hope Runs High In his feature debut Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint, Tomás Gómez Bustillo crafts an enchanting tale about faith and myth. At the heart of the Argentinian film, Rita (Mónica Villa), a devout woman, attempts to stage a miracle to win the favour of the local priest and her community. Through deadpan humour and a visually striking interplay between light and darkness, this enchanting film offers a heartfelt exploration of how we perceive narratives of spirituality.

We spoke to Bustillo shortly after his film premiered in the US, and he shared his journey into directing, discussed the image which originally inspired the film and remembered his days as a Catholic missionary. He also talked about the significance...

From statues that weep blood to dancing suns that lead to sudden darkness in the middle of the day, the Catholic faith overflows with accounts of miracles. But in order for a miracle to be deemed as such, it must go through a series of rigorous examinations during which the vast majority of occurences are debunked. The pious Rita López (Mónica Villa), the protagonist of Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s Chronicles of a Wandering Saint, spends her days seeking to be of service in her local church, but realizes nothing will pave her path to heaven faster than coming up with her own miracle––hence she enlists her husband Norberto (Horacio Marassi) in the restoration of a statue that might have mystical powers.

In his feature-length debut, Gómez Bustillo creates a world in which the mundane and divine are partners in a waltz that goes from sublime to absurd. With loving irreverence,...

Tomás Gómez Bustillo wears glasses and a warm but reserved smile. The second this young director realizes he is speaking to another Argentine, we switch to Spanish, and his sentences become longer, peppered with curses, as we like to do. Throughout our talk, Tomás Gómez Bustillo is honest and welcoming of all questions and comments. They are mainly about his debut feature film, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint, 84 minutes long and an absolute trip. So far, Chronicles has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, and swept many a prize at SXSW. It will be released commercially in theaters today; visit the official site for additional locations and release dates. The premise: Argentina. A small town. A devout but competitive woman, Rita (Mónica Villa),...

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A magic realist comic fable that ostensibly revolves around religion, Chronicles Of A Wandering Saint has a lot of faith in human nature. Tomás Gómez Bustillo keeps his bag of magic tricks firmly under wraps for his debut feature’s first half, however, as devout and mousy Rita (Mónica Villa) goes about her daily diligence at the local church, dusting, tidying and generally trying to avoid socialising with the other women there while also outdoing them in terms of the priest’s favour.

At home, Rita also feels stuck in a rut, resisting the charms of her sweetly attentive husband Norberto (Horacio Marassi) as he tries to recreate a waterfall holiday from their youth by slipping on a bright yellow rain poncho he’s found. Her sense of ennui is no doubt why she is drawn, like a moth to a light, to a statue she finds squirrelled away at the back of the.

The saying goes that miracles are everywhere for those with eyes to see them, which helps to explain why Rita Lopez — the most pious and competitive member of her rural Argentinian community — seems to find one in the first place she looks. Nearing 70, terminally bored of her marriage, and desperate for a heavenly sliver of the recognition that she’s been denied here on Earth, our heroine decides that an old sculpture she uncovers in the musty storeroom of her local church must be the statue of Saint Rita that’s been missing for 30 years, and was assumed to be lost forever.

It’s a big deal. So big, in fact, that Rita (Argentinian icon and “Wild Tales” star Mónica Villa) enlists her sweet and doddering husband Norberto (Horacio Marassi) to help smuggle the statue out of the church so she can spruce it up and unveil it to the...

A magical realist fantasy, first time director Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s Chronicles of a Wandering Saint imagines the path to heaven for a pious woman with dreams of sainthood. Combining old world, small town charm with modern technology and gentle humor, Saint examines the fundamental human desire for recognition and the sometimes-unintended consequences of little white lies. Rita Lopez (Mónica Villa) is a pious woman. She spends her days meticulously cleaning the church and meeting up with her friends to pray and occasionally gossip. One day while fumbling around in a storage room, she discovers what she believes to be a long missing holy statue. Ecstatic to finally be able to contribute something unique to her priest and the reputation of her local church, she smuggles the...

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Madrid-based sales company Feel Content has picked up international sales rights to black comedy “El cuento del tío” (“Pigeon Drop”), the feature debut of Argentine writer-director Ignacio Guggiari.

An Argentina-Chile co-production, produced by Gastón Klingenfeld at Buenos Aires’ outfit Gancho, Agustín Gosende at Cooperativa Mental and Picardía Films’ Diego Rougier, “El cuento del tío” world premieres on March 5 at the 2021 Miami Film Festival edition.

The feature, which also adds doses of suspense and drama to the mix, is set in a luxurious house during a Christmas dinner, when Rodo, the family’s millionaire uncle, accidentally dies.

His relatives, in pronounced dire straits, speculate about his lavish inheritance, but everything changes when at 12 o’clock the doorbell of the house rings and a woman introduces herself as the wife of the deceased.

Mario, the family’s head, desperate at the possibility of losing everything, hides the body and forces the others...