Ernesto is a retired miner and self-made witch hunter from the small mining town Naica in northern Mexico. After discovering signs of witchcraft and rituals around an abandoned mineshaft, Ernesto has taken it upon himself to chase the shadows of the witches that he has never seen. Home to the famous and spectacular Crystal Caves located in the depths of the industrial mine, above ground, Naica is a windswept and isolated desert town where myth, superstition and male chauvinism offer mental escapes from a monotonous everyday. Recalling the traditional conception of the underground as a ‘jealous female’ who envied the miners’ wives above ground and sometimes stole their men for good, the modern witches of Naica seem, instead, to have joined forces with the underworld. On an outing to the old mineshaft on the outskirts of town, Ernesto passes from a brave storyteller and entertainer to an uneasy intruder, as he hesitantly enters the witches’ cavernous hangout. 'Ernesto and the Witches of Naica' is part of a series of short films about the sub-terrain of Mexico, and part of a larger research project concerning Naica.
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