Crab Trap

We do not learn much about the young white traveler called Daniel, who turns up one day in the almost inaccessible village of La Barra on the Columbian Pacific coast. In his bags, he only has a photo of a woman and an envelope with money that he does not want to spend. Because there is no boat to travel further he ends up staying longer than planned in La Barra, taking advantage of the hospitality offered him by Cerebro, the head of the Afro-Columbian village community. Lucia, a small girl with a crab trap that gives the film its title, becomes Daniel’s constant companion. She persistently reminds him of the possibility to buy food from her mother and promises in return to help him get hold of a boat.

In his semi-documentary feature debut, Oscar Ruíz Navia films the encounter between Western civilization and the inhabitants of an isolated village on the edge of the rainforest, using non-professional actors from La Barra. A parable in calm, clear pictures about the “right” relationship between give and take, about the power of money, about modernity and tradition, strangeness and attachment. —Berlinale