• BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



  • BRUISES

    BRUISES



BRUISES

by Daniel Ulacia Balmaseda, Ginan Seidl

BRUISES

Germany | 2023 | 90:00 min

Original Title:
MORETONES

Content Categories

Documentary
Synopsis
A sensory film from the twilight between two worlds. In a village on Mexico’s southern coast, a small community lives in a complex, spiritual bond with nature’s animals.

A human being is born with a spiritual attachment to one of nature’s animals – a ‘tono’ – in a lifelong bond. Where once a tono protected its human counterpart, they have increasingly become a risk due to the destructive encroachment on their natural territories. ‘Bruises’ is a hypnotic and immersive film from the animist belief system and practices of a small community in Costa Chica on Mexico’s southern east coast, where Daniel Ulacia Balmaseda and Ginan Seidl meet four people and their tonos: a female fisherman, a healer, a farmer and a 97-year-old midwife who roams the night in the shape of a jaguar. Nature is threatened, but its immaterial powers are unchanged. Rather than a journey into the twilight between two worlds, BRUISES / MORETONES is a film that is present in the reality that surrounds the people and animals of this small community. Through a sensory, but always lucid cinematography, we sense the contours of relationships beyond ourselves. [CPH:DOX]
Festivals/Awards
2023
Seal of Approval ‘highly recommended’
CPH:DOX Denmark
2024
11 dokKa Karlsruhe, Germany
Cast and Crew
  • Director Daniel Ulacia Balmaseda, Ginan Seidl
  • Producer Stephan Helmut Beier, Ray Peter Maletzki, Ginan Seidl, Daniel Ulacia Balmaseda
  • Director of Photography Ginan Seidl
  • Editor Ginan Seidl, Daniel Ulacia Balmaseda
  • Sound Pamela Casasa 
  • Sound Design Steffen Martin
  • Digital Colorist Moritz Peters (Digital Images GmbH Halle)
  • Other Markus Böhm (Sound Mixing – Celluloidtracks GmbH)
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