Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Cielo

Play trailer Poster for Cielo 2025 1h 47m Adventure Drama Fantasy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 4 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
Santa, a rural peasant girl kneels by a lake in the wilderness and swallows one of the fish swimming under her reflection. She awakens transformed. She returns home to fulfill an agreement: the girl is to end her mother's life and then carry her across the desert toward heaven, a place they believe is as physically real as any other. Through her journey, Santa encounters a priest and a group of female wrestlers who help guide her on her way. Also on that path is, initially, her nemesis: a gruff policeman who arrests Santa but then comes to suspect that she has miraculous powers and that a fish may live inside her -- or is this really just a figment of the girl's fantasies? He soon sees that to achieve his own salvation he must join Santa on her quest into the next world beyond the horizon.

Critics Reviews

View More
Jonathan Romney Screen International Nov 26
Ultimately the film is further proof that the literary tradition of magical realism too easily turns to kitsch when translated into visual images. Go to Full Review
Dennis Harvey Variety Aug 5
While not lacking flaws, it offers considerable ambition, aesthetic beauty and bittersweet enchantment, with a surprisingly wide viewer appeal. It is at once this writer-director’s sweetest film and by far his most accomplished. Go to Full Review
Clint Worthington RogerEbert.com Jul 31
It’s heartwarming, even in the haziness of its ambiguous ending, a deeply sincere fantasy drama that can tug on even the firmest of heartstrings. Go to Full Review
Rich Cline Shadows on the Wall Dec 2
4/5
With vibrant colours, writer-director Alberto Sciamma infuses this fable with offbeat magical realism, pulling us into an odyssey that is packed with moments that are touching, provocative and wonderfully funny. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Movie Info

Synopsis Santa, a rural peasant girl kneels by a lake in the wilderness and swallows one of the fish swimming under her reflection. She awakens transformed. She returns home to fulfill an agreement: the girl is to end her mother's life and then carry her across the desert toward heaven, a place they believe is as physically real as any other. Through her journey, Santa encounters a priest and a group of female wrestlers who help guide her on her way. Also on that path is, initially, her nemesis: a gruff policeman who arrests Santa but then comes to suspect that she has miraculous powers and that a fish may live inside her -- or is this really just a figment of the girl's fantasies? He soon sees that to achieve his own salvation he must join Santa on her quest into the next world beyond the horizon.
Director
Alberto Sciamma
Producer
John Dunton Downer, Alexa Waugh, Bettina Kadoorie, Alberto Sciamma, Gareth Jones
Screenwriter
Alberto Sciamma
Production Co
Luchadora Films
Genre
Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Original Language
Spanish
Runtime
1h 47m