Abstract

Maragatería: one cor (e) ography is an odeto the region of Maragatería (León, Spain). The documentaryseeks to uncover the region to explore the different ways of life of its heterogeneous population, challenging traditional argument and narrative structures. Far from a traditional view of the land and their customs,the documentary is situated at the intersection between the different socialgroups who inhabit the region nowadays. From thelocal peasants, grown in a decaying preindustrial world, to the hippies and eco-rurals who repopulateabandoned villages, the various characters that occupy abandoned enclavesin the Camino de Santiago to help pilgrims, and urban dwellers returning to the rural in search of their roots and contact with nature, or the immigrants who came to this peripheral and poor area in search of a better life. The complex entanglements that occur here make foreigners adapt maragatotraditions, while northern European hippies see local peasants’ ways of life as the ideal they were looking for. Similarly, pilgrims from all over the world are enchanted by the beauty of the area and the relaxing character of its peoples, many of them settling down around and starting different life projects in community. The film tells the story of this extravagant and mysterious area and its peoples, in a mixture of science, comedy and experimental art.