A magical, mythical journey is the dream of an unlikely duo in this playfully picaresque example of creative documentary, the second feature-length work from director Chico Pereira after the crustily charming Pablo's Winter (2012).

His focus this time is on his own favourite uncle: 78-year-old Manolo, a retired Spanish gentleman who loves nothing better than wandering through the Andalusian countryside with his faithful donkey Gorrión ('Sparrow') and dog Zafrana.Realising that the sands of time are perhaps starting to run out--and ignoring medical advice that, given his chronic arthritis, he should start to take things easy--Manolo rages against the dying of the light by planning one last epic journey: the 3,500km Trail of Tears. His aim is to follow in the historical footsteps of the Cherokee nation, 20,000 of whom were exiled from their native lands to present-day Oklahoma by the US government's brutal resettlement policies in the late 1830s.

Determined to surmount all practical obstacles -including the tricky practicalities of transporting a live, water-phobic donkey across the Atlantic -Manolo valiantly pursues his quest with the indomitable spirit of Cervantes' literary creation Don Quixote--hence the punning title of this delightfully unorthodox "road movie." Will he reach the 'promised land' of the American West? Or is the adventure more important than arriving at a particular destination? NY

Chico Pereira (b. 1979) is from Almadén in central Spain, and studied film and media at the Scottish Screen Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland. After making several shorts films, both fiction and documentary, he completed a feature-length work as his graduation project: Pablo's Winter, which won prizes at IDFA Amsterdam and DOK Leipzig.

Year 2017

Director Chico PEREIRA

Screenplay Gabriel MOLERA, Chico PEREIRA, Manuel PEREIRA

Cinematography Julian SCHWANITZ

Producer Sonja HENRICI, Ingmar TROST

Runtime 1h 26m