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Chosen City

Beliefs divide a town. A mother, a son, and an alien witness learn how their faiths serve others.

synopsis

César (67), once renowned for witnessing a UFO as a child, now lives estranged in Capilla del Monte, Argentina. When a mysterious fire similar to his past happens, the Mayor gives César a mission: to investigate the fire with his homemade alien decoder. César has purpose again. His new neighbour Laura (40), a single mother looking for peace, has joined the spiritual community STOP, drawn by yoga, meditation, and the promise of a new life. Her son Felipe (8) finds it boring and is pulled instead to César’s alien stories. As Laura moves up in the STOP organisation, working as an architect on an eco-housing project, Felipe grows closer to César and the locals. Slowly, Laura becomes aware that the housing project is part of a plan to turn the town into an exclusive eco-resort for the “Chosen Ones”, leaving César and the villagers out. Afraid of losing everything, she holds tighter to STOP even as her doubts grow. At the annual Alien Festival, the plan is exposed: STOP’s leader Samura and the Mayor have used César’s name to spread fear and promote their project. Betrayed, César’s world falls apart. Laura finally breaks. She joins César and Felipe to get back at those who used them, calling the aliens, who come in a surreal ending to abduct the false prophets as the town unites.

Director’statement

We escape unliveable cities and burnout to seek a new way of living. Arrive in “Nature” reproducing the same habits we try to leave behind, believing our lifestyle or belief is better than others, often from a place of privilege. Forests are burned and nature is destroyed to build new eco-houses, retreats, and even golf courts, repeating the same destruction we claim to reject. This story was born from my anger at those fires and at the absurd justifications for them. We choose the beliefs that keep us at peace, that let us feel innocent, even when they make us complicit with those turning faith into business. We criticise religion yet reproduce the same colonial and exploitative patterns through new trends and imported rituals. Ciudad Elegida explores how our need for belief can soothe but also blind us, and how easy it is to be manipulated. With humour, satire, and absurdity, the film reflects on privilege and the ways we let ourselves be used, in the name of “progress”.

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