Sarahí Echeverría is an Ecuadorian filmmaker. She studied filmmaking at the University of Cinema Film School (FUC) in Buenos Aires and later specialized in production and cultural project management. She is the co-writer of the projects Jirafas, Inusa and Mokawas and is currently in post-production of her documentary Sé morir. Sarahí explores with images and sounds the world of children and the construction of intimacy in a world full of globalized images. She is interested in stories that question, move and create memories. Sarahí founded in 2011 her production company Clapproducciones, with which she has worked as a producer in documentary and fiction feature films. Maneki Neko is her first fiction feature film as a director.

Maneki Neko — Valentina, a quiet and sensitive girl, arrives from the city with her mother to live in her grandmother’s house in the middle of the Andes, where she meets Rosa, an indigenous girl who works in the corn fields. Valentina does not want to return to the city for fear of her father; Rosa, on the other hand, wants to leave the countryside for the big city. Both entangle reality with fantasy, like a shield that protects them and, at the same time, invades, hits and breaks what they build together.