Institut Ramon LLull

Rita and Líton forge a friendship, a microcosmos of hope within a parched valley plagued by extinction and an epidemic that preys on men who love each other. She grew up in the Colony that developed around a now all but depleted mine; he’s from the city but is now completing his Service in the fire brigade charged with snuffing out the near constant blazes. Despite the ash that hangs heavy in the air, they discover that first friendships, like first loves, are as indelible as they are doomed to dissolution. Meanwhile, though, dance parties and the luminosity of sharing melancholy are a panacea for heartaches that grow like damp stains.

Can a friend be a safety net beneath the tightrope that is life? Are these friends fleeing together, or merging? What happens when their bond falls apart? In this elegiac, atmospheric patchwork narrative –that alternates dialogues, descriptions, diary entries and soliloquies from an array of perspectives– the questions are more urgent than the answers.