Almamula movie storyline. Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Nino lives with his family and he is in the midst of exploring his early awakening sexuality. At age 14, Nino is already a victim of homophobic attacks. To protect him, his parents decide to leave the city temporarily and the whole family moves to a farm near a rural village.
The place is surrounded by the “monte”, a huge humid and dark forest where his father works. Nino feels guilty for what he is going through and for having turned his family’s life upside down. His sister Natalia, aged 16, away from her friends and in her teens, has no mercy on him. Estela, his mother, wants to put Nino “back on the right track” and organizes his Confirmation in the local church.
In this rural and superstitious environment, Nino hears about the legend of a mysterious creature called the Almamula, which haunts the “monte” and takes with it anyone who has committed sexually reprehensible acts. The Priest’s sermons show Nino that his sexuality is not acceptable to the eyes of God. The pressure of the approaching Confirmation ceremony weighs on him as his fascination for the Almamula, who he thinks would accept his sins, grows. Little by little, Nino begins to pray to the Almamula, seeing it as a way of “salvation”, and goes in search of the creature, to be taken by it.
Almamula is a 2023 drama film written and directed by Juan Sebastián Torales. It stars Nicolás Díaz as Nino, a 14-year-old boy who has moved with his family to a small, conservative town in northern Argentina after suffering a violent homophobic attack in their former hometown.
The town has recently suffered the disappearance of another young boy in the woods which was attributed to the almamula, a mythological creature in Argentine folklore who supposedly destroys the sexually impure; manipulated by the local church in an attempt to cure him of his homosexuality, Nino himself begins to long for the almamula to come take him away as well. It is a co-production of companies from Argentina, France and Italy.
Almamula (2024)
Directed by: Juan Sebastián Torales
Starring: Nicolás Díaz, Martina Grimaldi, Cali Coronel, María Soldi, Luisa Lucía Paz, Beto Frágola, Tania Darchuk, Adrián Ramallo, Gustavo Benjamin Arce Mitre, Thiago Ovejero
Screenplay by: Juan Sebastián Torales
Production Design by: Pilar Peredo
Cinematography by: Ezequiel Salinas
Film Editing by: Juan Sebastián Torales
Makeup Department: Carlos Bocardi
Music by: Matteo Locasciulli
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Bendita Films
Release Date: February 18, 2023 (Berlin)
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