The Prince of Nanawa

A footbridge divides Argentina and Paraguay. Amid the dizzying flow of trafficking and trade, the filmmaker meets nine-year-old Ángel and begins filming with him. Over ten years, the images trace his passage from childhood to adolescence, shaped by resilience and the rhythms of the border.

Clarisa Navas: ‘The Prince of Nanawa is a lifelong project that has connected me with Ángel since our first encounter, when he was a child at the border between our countries. Nearly a decade later, the promise of making this film together has remained our bond.

As Ángel’s concerns evolved, so did our relationship. While daily life remains harsh, sometimes a film can be a promise. Sometimes I think The Prince of Nanawa is, at its core, a film about love in its many forms — how it transcends differences and how we accompany each other through life’s changes. I don’t know what cinema can do in a world that seems to be crumbling around us, but I do know imagination is not only a refuge: it is a force, our last reserve to defy, create and resist.’