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Exploring the transformative power of the Camino de Santiago

Award-winning documentary 'Walking the Camino' comes to Nelson on Wednesday.
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Pilgrims are seen here walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

What is it about Spain's ancient Camino de Santiago trail that lures hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to spend weeks, even months, walking 800 kilometres with nothing more than a backpack, a pair of boots and the promise of experiencing something truly extraordinary? The award-winning documentary Walking the Camino explores the enduring and mysterious attraction of this pilgrimage.

The film played for over four months straight in Toronto, where the Toronto Star proclaimed it, "Easy on the ears as well as the eyes and inspiring to the soul." Called a "brilliant documentary" by actor Martin Sheen, (star of the 2010 fictional account The Way) Walking the Camino uniquely captures authentic stories from the trail itself as it follows in the footsteps of six pilgrims, ages three to 71, as they make their way across the picturesque countryside of Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and beyond.

While each of the pilgrims come from a different life experience than the next, their stories converge as they share in the transformational journey of the Camino.

Walking the Camino has received critical and audience accolades across North America and around the world garnering a 88 per cent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It participated in over 25 film festivals, winning eight awards and selling out the majority of its screenings.

The theatrical success for this small, independent self-distributed documentary was incredible — it became the No. 12 documentary of 2014 in Canada and the United States, No. 5 in both Australia and New Zealand and the No. 211 top grossing documentary of all time.

Now this best-selling film is coming to Nelson for a very special one-night event where the producer-director Lydia B. Smith and featured BC pilgrims Wayne Emdee and Jack Greenhalgh will do an extended question and answer session after the film.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to see this extraordinary film at the Civic Theatre on Wednesday, July 20 at 7:30 p.m.

For more information go to caminodocumentary.org.