When Fire Turns to Ash

Documentary Film, AT/CAN 2025, DCP, 95 min, OmeU

Michaela Grill’s most recent essay film tells the story of Tierra del Feugo’s vanished indigenous population. With the help of nature footage, historical photos, texts, and drawings, a dialogue emerges between past and present. In interview sequences, descendants of indigenous people speak, while research reports recount the brutal missionary campaigns. A documentary about wounds in the landscape, history, and the struggle to come to terms with them.

Content Notes: When Fire Turns to Ash addresses colonial crimes

Director: Michaela Grill
Script: Michaela Grill
Cast: Miguel Pantoja, Rubén Maldonado, Tahali Ayelen Villanueva, Estela Maris Maldonado, Teresa Catalina Vargas, Maria Olinda Vargas, Tarsicio Vargas, Daniela Bogarin, Alba Chaile, Margarita Maldonado, Maria Salamanca, José Gonzalez Calderon, Luis Gomez Zarranga
Camera: Michaela Grill
Editor: Michaela Grill
Location Sound: Nick Kuepfer
Music: Nick Kuepfer
Sounddesign: Nick Kuepfer
Additional Credits: Stimme: Elizabeth Anka Vajagic; Indigenous Advisors: Alba Chaile, Miguel Pantoja; Production Manager, Übersetzung: Mariana Frandsen; Script Consultant: Barbara Pichler; Sound Mastering: Harris Newman
Producers: Michaela Grill
Distribution in Austria: sixpackfilm
Funded by: BMKÖS – innovative film
CINE ART
Stadt Wien MA 7
World Premiere: Native Women in Film Festival Los Angeles 2026
Austrian Premiere: Diagonale '26
Production format: digital