La memoria de las mariposas

The Memory of Butterflies

Forum 2025

Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski found her attention grabbed by an old photo of two Indigenous men: taken to London to be “civilised” around the turn of the 20th century, their names were known, but little else – Omarino and Aredomi. Sadowski felt compelled to dig deeper into the past. LA MEMORIA DE LAS MARIPOSAS deconstructs the official history of the extractive, colonial rubber trade of the late 19th and early 20th century in Latin America. Using black-and-white, hand-processed Super 8 imagery that could almost pass for the extensively researched and meticulously worked archival footage and historical photographs it cuts into and challenges, the film proposes a counter-history of the colonial project, one in which Sadowski self-reflexively questions her own position as filmmaker. Going beyond the archive, Sadowski shares the photo with the Indigenous peoples of Peru today, the descendants of Omarino and Aredomi, and films their interventions. A powerful cinematic invocation, LA MEMORIA DE LAS MARIPOSAS seeks to recover lost and overlooked stories of a generation devastated by the rubber boom, providing space for the ghosts which break from official memory.

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by Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski (Director, Screenplay) Peru / Portugal 2025 Spanish, Murui Huitoto 77' Colour & Black/White World premiere | Debut film | Documentary form

Crew

Director	Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski
Screenplay	Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski
Cinematography	Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, Isabel Madueño Medina
Editing	Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, Fernanda Bonilla, Elizabeth Landesberg
Sound Design	Félix Blume
Executive Producers	Isabel Madueño Medina, Ico Costa
Co-Producers	Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, Isabel Madueño Medina, Ico Costa

Produced by

Miti Films

Perpetua Cine

Oublaum Filmes

World Sales

Elizabeth Aquino - distribution

Photos

Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski

Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski is a Peruvian filmmaker whose work bridges experimental and documentary cinema, exploring themes of memory, colonial histories, and collective healing. She studied Performing Arts in Peru and Film and New Media at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains. Her previous films have been showcased at festivals including Doclisboa, Oberhausen, and Art of the Real. La memoria de las mariposas is her opera prima, her latest exploration of archival research and Indigenous storytelling. She is committed to addressing historical wounds through a poetic cinematic lens.

Filmography

2012 La Huella (The Imprint); short film 2013 Yo marco los árboles para reconocerlos después (I Mark the Trees to Recognize Later); short film 2015 Bam bam pum lol 2020 Carta para Amadeo (Letter to Amadeo); short film 2025 La memoria de las mariposas (The Memory of Butterflies)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025