Carne de Dios (Flesh of God)
2022 · 21m · Argentina, Mexico, Colombia
Directed by Patricio Plaza
Genres: animation, fantasy, horror
Tones: dark, provocative, surreal
During 17th-century colonial Mexico, a Catholic friar suffering a mysterious illness is led by his indigenous disciple to a Mazatec healer who performs an ancient ritual using hallucinogenic mushrooms—the very native practices the priest has been persecuting. The ritual triggers nightmarish visions and a profound, unwilled transformation.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
100 artists, four years, 17th-century Spanish friar gets dosed by Mazatec mushrooms in a colonial horror animation built from actual archival texts. Director calls it queer South American political horror — wait, WHAT? Yes.
Drawn from archival texts of Spanish friars, four years and a hundred-plus artists, positioned as both political horror and South American queer cinema — this is exactly the kind of formally ambitious work from the Global South I want to program. The age-restriction confirms its uncompromising material.
The YouTube page is age-gated with no description, but the project's published lineage — four years, 100+ artists, drawn from actual Spanish friar archives — is exactly the kind of multi-year Global South animation effort I'd fight for. 21-minute political horror animation with that scope is genuinely rare.
Reviews
A complex and ambitious piece, with its surprising storyline and striking aesthetic making it a short you won't forget any time soon.
Carne de Dios is transgressive, no doubt about it... this animated short is sure to leave viewers uncomfortable, if not disturbed. The viewer's immersion in a moody and surreal world is a palatable delivery system for some pretty taboo themes.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Festival 2022
- Guadalajara International Film Festival 2022, Award Winner
- Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2022, Best National Short Film
- Chilemonos 2022, Award Winner