The Peruvian feature Punku, directed by J.D. Fernández Molero, won the Grand Prix for Best Film at the 25th edition of the New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland. The top award comes with a €10,000 cash prize. The Mexican film The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box) by Ernesto Martínez Bucio received the Audience Award, which includes a €7,500 prize.
Described by the jury as “a sensory, kaleidoscopic film deeply rooted in the topography of a land and the human condition, seemingly blending the real with the supernatural, the timeless with the contemporary, the spiritual with the everyday,” Punku impressed for its bold aesthetic approach. “Employing different shooting styles and formats, it captures the contradictions and complexities of a specific place and time—and also of life itself—proposing a unique way of looking at both cinema and the world,” the jury concluded.
Shot in 16mm, Super 8, and digital formats, this one-of-a-kind, genre-blending film is the latest work by Fernández Molero, winner of the Rotterdam Tiger Award for Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes). The Peruvian filmmaker first garnered acclaim with his debut Reminiscencias, which screened at numerous international festivals. Videophilia made history as the first Peruvian film to win the Golden Tiger at Rotterdam and was featured in the New Horizons Competition during the festival’s 15th edition. Fernández Molero later returned to serve on the festival’s jury in 2016.
Set in the Amazonian lowlands and the tropical city of Quillabamba in Peru’s Cusco region, Punku—meaning “gateway” in Quechua—follows an unlikely pair on a foreboding journey that fuses the surrealism of fairy tales with the real-life weight of trauma in a shared search for safety and belonging.
Meshia, a Matsigenka Indigenous teenager, discovers Ivan, a young boy who disappeared two years earlier and was presumed dead. Determined to save him, she leads him upriver toward the city for an urgent surgery to halt the infection consuming his sight. While Ivan remains withdrawn, haunted by his murky past and disturbing dreams, Meshia is increasingly drawn to the city's seductive promise. Her ambitions push her to enter a local beauty pageant, even as threats—whether from mythical forest creatures or masked figures at night—lurk constantly in the shadows.
An evocative meditation on identity, violence, and tenderness, Punku explores the imaginative and cultural landscapes of Peru with haunting beauty. With this bold new work, Fernández Molero confirms his status as one of the most original and provocative voices in contemporary Andean cinema.
