The Movie Teller

For the small salt mining community at the heart of The Movie Teller, their local cinema becomes their most sacred space. It’s there, in the packed theater, that the community comes together every Sunday for a few hours of escapism — an experience that is still just as special today as it was in 1966. Through the films they watch, the community is transported to faraway places, where days aren’t filled with unending hard labor in the salt mines, and the people are unbothered by the slow-turning wheels of political turmoil and free to follow their lofty dreams. Movies take on a much larger life for each character in The Movie Teller, but it’s María Margarita who is the most transformed by them. For María, movies become her second language — one that only she is truly fluent in within her community, and even her family. If the community is the saplings that grow from the seeds of storytelling, then María is a gardener who carefully nourishes that communal spirit, encouraging it to grow and thrive even under oppressive circumstances.

Maggie Lovitt / Collider

On 28 August, the screening at Kino Tapiola is an age-restricted alcohol serving screening for individuals aged 18 and above.