11-year-old Maria lives with her mother Lilibeth at the edge of a landfill. Their future depends on selling a litter of purebred puppies to a local thug. When the deal falls through, Lilibeth must go to the city and drop Maria off at a recycling centre where she must stay and work. But days pass and Maria doesn’t return.

Nicaragua-born filmmaker Laura Baumeister de Montis pulled her inspiration for Daughter of Rage from a visit to La Chureca - the biggest open landfill in Nicaragua and Central America - as a teenager.

The contrasting images between the mountains of rubbish and the beauty of the Xolotlán Lake stayed with her, and are reinterpreted in a film with an environmental frame that explores the connection between fantasy, the natural world and a mother and daughter relationship.

“Childhood is a fascinating terrain, and the films and stories I read or heard as a child continue to influence me (...) So that’s why I also wanted to give a viscerally heartening story to the majority of boys and girls in places like my country, who despite living under extreme circumstances find ways to resist. ‘La imaginación como trinchera’ (Imagination as a trench).” Laura Baumeister de Montis

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