Punku, the sophomore fiction feature from Peruvian filmmaker J.D. Fernández Molero, makes its North American premiere at Anthology Film Archives in New York City on Wednesday, Feb. 18, with the director in attendance. The screening is part of Lost & Found: Cine(ma)s Latinoamericanos Re-Unidos, the ongoing series spotlighting vital Latin American films that rarely get U.S. premieres.

Set in the Peruvian Amazon lowlands and the city of Quillabamba in the Cusco region, Punku takes its name from the Quechua word for “gateway,” a fitting clue to a film that moves between the everyday and the uncanny. The story follows Meshia, a Matsigenka Indigenous teenager, who discovers Iván, a young boy who disappeared two years earlier and was presumed dead. Determined to help him, she leads him on a difficult journey upriver and into the mountains so he can receive urgent medical care to save his fading eyesight.

As Iván struggles with trauma and unsettling dreams, Meshia becomes drawn to the city and its promises, entering a local beauty pageant fueled by ambition and fragile hope. Their quiet bond deepens, even as a constant sense of danger lingers, whether from human threats or something more elusive lurking in the rainforest. Shot on 16mm, Super 8 and digital formats and screening on 35mm, Punku blends fairy tale textures, tropical gothic atmosphere and lived reality into a film that feels tactile, unsettling and deeply human.

The film had its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum and continues Fernández Molero’s reputation as one of the most adventurous voices in contemporary Peruvian and Andean cinema. For New York audiences interested in Latin American film, Indigenous storytelling and boundary-pushing narrative cinema, Punku is a screening not to miss.