OCA, the Lyrical and Existential Debut Feature by Karla Badillo Will Have Its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
A Buñuelian Fable of Faith, Pilgrimage, and Revelation, This Surreal Tale Reimagines the Initiation Journey in Rural Mexico Through a Feminine Lens
** Director and Actors Available for In-Person and Online Interviews **
Oca, the atmospheric and mystical debut feature written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Karla Badillo, will have its world premiere in the Discovery section of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), taking place September 4-14, 2025.
Featuring a stellar cast including Natalia Solián (Huesera: The Bone Woman), Cecilia Suárez (The House of Flowers), Leonardo Ortizgris (Güeros), Gerardo Trejo-Luna (A Million Miles Away), Raúl Briones (La Cocina), and Enrique Arreola (Duck Season), Oca also incorporates non-professional actors from the San Luis Potosí region, discovered by casting director Daniel Rivera. The result is a lyrical exploration of dreams, faith, and the winding path between belief and disillusionment.
The film follows Rafaela (Solián), a devoted young nun from a dwindling congregation—an evocative contemporary blend of Luis Buñuel’s Nazarín and Viridiana—as she embarks on a pilgrimage to a distant town where a new archbishop has been appointed. Along the way, she encounters travelers, a paratrooper, and members of the privileged class, whose trials and perspectives mirror her own search for faith, meaning, and survival in a world shaped by both spiritual devotion and material realities.
Badillo’s inspiration for the film is rooted in her own life. Born in San Luis Potosí, she was raised Catholic, surrounded by religious iconography and local legends of miracles. Early in life, she considered becoming a nun before growing disenchanted with the limited roles for women in the Church. In Oca, she transforms these personal influences into a lyrical exploration of fervor, destiny, and self-discovery.
A Mexican-Argentine coproduction by Pina Films and Las Jaras and Pucará Cine and Año Cero, the film is produced by María José Córdova, Karla Badillo, Federico Eisnerbusyc, and Federico Sande. The film’s title comes from the traditional Spanish board game Oca (the Game of the Goose), in which players follow a winding path determined by the roll of the dice. The game’s unpredictable movement mirrors the rhythms of a pilgrimage, where every step—forward or backward—is shaped by fate, faith, and the human desire to make meaning from mystery.
Cinematographer Diana Garay evocatively captures the expansive landscapes of central Mexico, where revelations hide in plain sight and the path toward transcendence is never straightforward. Directed, produced, and shot by women, and centered on female protagonists, Oca reimagines Buñuel’s themes for contemporary Mexico, bringing a distinctly female vision to Latin American cinema and marking an auspicious debut for a filmmaker to watch.
TIFF Screenings:
Friday, September 5, at the Scotiabank Theatre — P&I Screening
Tuesday, September 9, 9:30pm at the Scotiabank Theatre — World Premiere
Wednesday, September 10, 12:25pm at the Scotiabank Theatre
Sunday, September 14, 1pm at TIFF Lightbox
For more information, to request a screener, or to schedule an interview
with the director and/or actors, please contact Samuel Didonato,
Cinema Tropical at press@cinematropical.com or (212) 254-5474.
OCA. Mexico/Argentina, 2025, 109 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Written and directed by Karla Badillo; Producers: Federico Eibuszyc, Karla Badillo, María José Córdova, Federico Sande Novo; Cinematographer: Diana Garay; Editor: Loli Moriconi; Production Designer: Ana J. Bellido; Costume Designers: Juan de Dios Ramírez, Alberto Escamilla de la Garza; Sound: Guido Berenblum, Axel Muñoz; Original Score: Josh Madoff; Cast: Natalia Solián (Rafaela), Cecilia Suárez, Cristel Guadalupe Núñez, Leonardo Ortizgris, Gerardo Trejo-Luna, Raúl Briones, Enrique Arreola, Gabriela Núñez, Natalia Placencia; Production Companies: Pina Films, Las Jaras, Pucará Cine, Año Cero.
About the Director:
Director, producer, and screenwriter Karla Badillo graduated from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) in Mexico City. Her short film Sin regresos (No Returns, 2019) was part of the Official Competition at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and screened at the Dumbo Film Festival in New York, among others. As a producer, she has worked on films such as Ruido (Noise) by Natalia Beristain, which screened in the Horizontes Latinos section at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (2022), and Eureka by Lisandro Alonso, which premiered at Cannes (2023), where she served as co-producer. Oca is her first feature film.