Oca, the atmospheric and mystical debut feature written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Karla Badillo, will have its world premiere in the Discovery section of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), taking place September 4-14, 2025.
Featuring a stellar cast including Natalia Solián (Huesera: The Bone Woman), Cecilia Suárez (The House of Flowers), Leonardo Ortizgris (Güeros), Gerardo Trejo-Luna (A Million Miles Away), Raúl Briones (La Cocina), and Enrique Arreola (Duck Season), Oca also incorporates non-professional actors from the San Luis Potosí region, discovered by casting director Daniel Rivera. The result is a lyrical exploration of dreams, faith, and the winding path between belief and disillusionment.
The film follows Rafaela (Solián), a devoted young nun from a dwindling congregation—an evocative contemporary blend of Luis Buñuel's Nazarín and Viridiana—as she embarks on a pilgrimage to a distant town where a new archbishop has been appointed. Along the way, she encounters travelers, a paratrooper, and members of the privileged class, whose trials and perspectives mirror her own search for faith, meaning, and survival in a world shaped by both spiritual devotion and material realities.
Badillo's inspiration for the film is rooted in her own life. Born in San Luis Potosí, she was raised Catholic, surrounded by religious iconography and local legends of miracles. Early in life, she considered becoming a nun before growing disenchanted with the limited roles for women in the Church. In Oca, she transforms these personal influences into a lyrical exploration of fervor, destiny, and self-discovery.
A Mexican-Argentine coproduction by Pina Films and Las Jaras and Pucará Cine and Año Cero, the film is produced by María José Córdova, Karla Badillo, Federico Eisnerbusyc, and Federico Sande. The film’s title comes from the traditional Spanish board game Oca (the Game of the Goose), in which players follow a winding path determined by the roll of the dice. The game's unpredictable movement mirrors the rhythms of a pilgrimage, where every step—forward or backward—is shaped by fate, faith, and the human desire to make meaning from mystery.
Cinematographer Diana Garay evocatively captures the expansive landscapes of central Mexico, where revelations hide in plain sight and the path toward transcendence is never straightforward. Directed, produced, and shot by women, and centered on female protagonists, Oca reimagines Buñuel’s themes for contemporary Mexico, bringing a distinctly female vision to Latin American cinema and marking an auspicious debut for a filmmaker to watch.
