Real de Catorce sits high in the Sierra de Catorce, in the desert state of San Luis Potosi, and is reached through a long single-lane tunnel cut into the rock. Silver made the town: streets of stone houses, a mint, a bullring, all built on mining wealth. When the mines declined the population left, and much of the town became a shell of roofless walls. What kept it alive was its church. Devotion to the image venerated there draws pilgrims from across Mexico, and the adjoining rooms are lined with retablos and ex-votos — small painted panels and written testimonies left in thanks for cures, rescues and safe returns. The film reads this popular art as a documentary record of ordinary lives. It also films the town itself: cobbled streets, ruined facades, horses, and the vast high desert beyond, a landscape long held sacred by indigenous pilgrims of the region. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage.
