Alicia Cano’s first film is above all a history of place—an unusual place. A building in a small Uruguayan village, the Bella Vista has been by turns a soccer clubhouse, a nightclub with transvestite hostesses and a house of worship. This novel setting, a space of freedom as much as prejudices, provides the backdrop to a delicate and subtle documentary in which neither the camera nor the commentary forces its hand. The director chooses instead to cede the spotlight to her subjects. Colourful in the extreme, touching in their authenticity and much more complex than they appear, their simple stories in a simple place lead us down many paths. The Bella Vista has witnessed everything from debauchery to sanctity: a proudly macho grandfather buries his only son, a transvestite fulfils her dream of adopting a child, another is burned by love, children are inspired by the idea of God. Without judgement and seemingly hands-off, the film takes on highly-charged themes played out by universally touching characters at the collision point of different worlds.