How caring for an injured dove gave a widowed man a new outlook on life

‘The dove fills me. What else can I say?’

Cucli is the story of the relationship between Ramon, a recently widowed Catalan truck driver, and the female dove he nursed to health and befriended following his wife’s death. Ramon isn’t quite sure whether Cucli is his wife reincarnated or just another living creature with whom he has found a bond, but keeping her near him at all times, including when he’s driving his truck across the country, has given him a newfound peace with his existence and mortality. Tenderly constructed and stunningly photographed by the Barcelona-born director Xavier Marrades, Cucli unfolds as a graceful paean to love and companionship, weaving Ramon’s reflections on life and death with ethereal motifs and striking images of Spanish landscapes and cities.