Luminum

Synopsis

Silvia and Andrea are a mother-and-daughter team who have been hunting UFOs since the 1990s. Together they run a research group based at the UFO Museum in Victoria, Entre Ríos, Argentina. They usually keep watch and track sightings of lights in the sky over the River Paraná, apparently a very popular area with extraterrestrials, as well as organising hikes and astronomy camps.
Recreation, expectation and contemplation are at the heart of this film by Maximiliano Schonfeld, who accompanied the protagonists over several years, filming them tracking sightings and going about their everyday life. Luminum also features archive images, TV appearances and a science-fiction-tinged soundtrack. Fiction and observation are deftly intertwined in a respectful portrait where everything and anything is possible.

Bio/Filmo

Maximiliano Schonfeld (Argentina, 1982) studied film at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and graduated from ENERC (Escuela Nacional de Experimentación y Realización Cinematográfica). Since making his debut feature, Germania (2012), he has combined futher fiction films such as La helada negra (2015) and Jesús López (2021, written together with writer Selva Almada and winner of an award at Mar del Plata) with documentaries such as La siesta del tigre (2016) and Luminum. His work has been screened at festivals such as the Berlinale, Doclisboa, Visions du Réel, San Sebastián and D'A.