PUNKU
a film by J.D. Fernández Molero
FEATURE PRESENTATION
MAY 29, 2026 • 6:30 PM
@ THE BUS STOP THEATRE
(2203 GOTTINGEN STREET, HALIFAX)
2025 / PERU, SPAIN / 132 mins
In Spanish, Quechua and Machiguenga with English subtitles
A Q+A WITH J.D. FERNÁNDEZ MOLERO
WILL FOLLOW THE SCREENING
Punku is the third feature from Peruvian filmmaker J.D. Fernández Molero, whose last film Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) earned Rotterdam’s Tiger Award and was Peru’s submission to the 89th Academy Awards.
His latest follows Ivan, a missing child who’s found with an injured eye deep in the Amazon by Meshia, a Matsigenka teenager. After she joins him in the southern city of Quillabamba for his recovery, Meshia adapts to the temptations of her new city life, while Ivan faces a barrage of threatening visits from mythic creatures.
Punku—a Quechua word meaning “gateway”—is crafted from Molero’s childhood memories and stories from his family, and combines celluloid, digital photography, and stop-motion animation. It’s a coming-of-age film that seeks answers in the thresholds: between child and adult, tradition and modernity, reality and the world of dreams. —Evan Bower
TRAILER
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
J. D. Fernández Molero
J. D. Fernández Molero is a Peruvian filmmaker, producer, and editor. His films include Reminiscences (2010), presented at MoMA’s Modern Mondays in 2011, and Videophilia (and other viral syndromes), which won the Tiger Award at the 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam as well as the Hubert Bals Fund for post-production, and was the Peruvian candidate for the 89th Academy Awards. Punku (2025), his second fiction feature, won the Visions Sud Est production grant and a grant from the Peruvian National Film Fund of the Ministry of Culture for feature film development and production.
Photo: Andrea Martorellet