CALIPATRIA
Convicted of murder, Sergio Cassilas (48) lives in solitary confinement. One hour a day he works in Calipatria´s desert prison garden. With the help of a guard he smuggles a load of earth from the landscape of his favorite movie into its grounds. While working there Sergio reveals the secret meaning of the soil for his life sentence in prison.
Based on a real life story the film documents Sergio´s slow walk across the prison´s empty courtyard. The camera´s static gaze follows him into the distant garden. While the vision stays imprisoned Sergio´s story leads beyond the prison walls into the iconic river-scapes of the Rio Grande and Alaska´s uncharted Yukon territories, tightly connected to American myths of wilderness, lucky strikes, the self made man and the promise of land and liberty for all. (production note)
CALIPATRIA
2017
Austria, USA
8 min