Yono, or Mbah Jhiwo (ancient soul), a Kawah Ijen sulphur miner, sees his routine radically altered the moment his wife goes away. Trapped like Sisyphus into an eternal return, Yono will face similar events that mutate in appearance as his beliefs move from animism, to Islam and capitalism. An ethno-fiction that explores otherness and questions the myth of progress in the neocolonial reality of the South Seas.

- Dir. Alvaro Gurrea - 93min - 2021 - Spain -

"beguiling...treads the line between fiction and ethnographic documentary. Moments of beauty quietly emanate" - The Guardian

"moments of great aesthetic beauty" - Cineuropa

"Ancient Soul is a fiction film. It is a documentary. It is a hybrid form of cinema that not only blurs the line between those two forms, but that actively questions it. The film is a commentary, it is a document. And it is a beautiful first-time feature-length work by a director who is only at the beginning of his hopefully long career." - The Art of Slow Cinema