Zahorí

The remarkable first feature by Marí Alessandrini, Zahorí is a moving story of teenage rebellion and self-discovery set amidst the beautiful and desolate landscape of the Patagonian Steppe. The film centres around thirteen-year-old Mora, who lives on the border between Chile and Argentina with her little brother Himeko and her Swiss-Italian ecologist parents as they attempt to run a farm. An outcast at school and at odds with her parents, Mora befriends her elderly Mapuche neighbour, Nazareno, who has lost his horse Zahorí. As Mora travels into the desert in search of Zahorí she begins a personal journey of discovery.

‘Since my childhood the steppe [in Patagonia] has haunted me. As a teenager I made my first photographic portraits. Later as an adult I travelled through these isolated villages with a circus. That’s how I got to know the boarding schools and its children, who have marked me forever. The population of the steppe is mainly “gauchos”, native or western peasants, only men. Few women live there and some of them end up leaving the steppe, due to the often-macho environment. So, Mora’s dream of becoming a “gaucha” is utopian. Zahorí speaks of passages, from childhood to adulthood for Mora, and from life to death for Nazareno. It is an initiatory journey, punctuated by the trials that Mora has to face, her desires, thoughts and her femininity in conflict with her environment.’

Marí Alessandrini, Director