Increíbles
2017 · 15m · Nicaragua
Directed by Alberto Pla
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
Three young people from one of the poorest towns in Nicaragua and Latin America describe a fight against adversity in pursuit of cherished dreams. Daily attendance at a non-formal education school run by Fundacion SOLCA opens a door to education, hope and a different future.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a well-intentioned doc about hope-against-odds, which is exactly the kind of consensus play that usually puts me to sleep—but I'm curious whether Pla found something formally weird in the constraint of shooting in one of the poorest regions of Latin America that subverts the savior-narrative we're bracing for.
A sincere addition to the educational-uplift documentary tradition, with the formal restraint to let the subjects' voices carry the weight rather than imposing a directorial vision—the kind of quietly rigorous work that proves craft can mean getting out of the way.
The decision to let three different voices narrate their own pursuit rather than impose a singular arc keeps this from collapsing into inspirational cliché; that structural choice—equal, interwoven testimony—is what makes the hope feel earned instead of manufactured.