Following the success of their feature debut Jennifer’s Shadow (2004) – an exercise in American Gothic set in a scary land called Argentina – Pablo Parés and Daniel de la Vega worked for a US company on a post-mega-disaster wasteland zombie film in which South America had been turned into an all-purpose, all-materials junkyard, with the undead as the last humane entities around (forget about the humans here!). The project never materialised, but Diego Parés, Pablo’s brother, started to write and draw a comic series based on the screenplay – which so far remains a ruin, as only parts were finished and published. The ECish beauty and balls of Diego P.’s labour of love have now been congenially transformed by the directorial duo into a delightfully old-(1970s)school low-budget production, closer to Romero and Dante than Fulci and Lenzi. And the IFFR audience is in for the treat of treats they get to see the film and can also enjoy the unfinished comic in an exhibition.
A young wild girl Fanchon ( Mary Pickford ) lives in a forest with her eccentric grandmother who is suspected by the villagers of being a witch. The unkempt Fanchon suffers from her grandmother's sorceress reputation. One day the girl rescues a boy from drowning and they fall in love, but Fanchon won't agree to marry him unless his father asks her. A year later the boy has fall...