Diego Luna
Abel is a 9 year-old boy whose behaviour and refusal to speak ends in his admission to a mental hospital near home. Convinced that reuniting him with his brother and sister could help his situation, his single mother persuades Abel's doctor to let the boy out for a week. With no father on the scene, Abel becomes a rather unconventional paternal figure who succeeds in drawing the family closer together. Until one day a man knocks on the door: his father.
Sebastián Hiriart
Jacinto Medina is 21 and bored with his life as a shepherd in northern Mexico. He finds a key on the ground. Taking it as a message, he sets out on a journey covering thousands of kilometres.
Paz Fábrega
Costa Rica-France-Spain-Mexico
83 min.
On New Year's holidays, Mariana (21) and Rodrigo (30) drive to the Pacific coast. There, late at night and in the middle of nowhere, they find Karina (7), who has run away from home. The couple decides to stay the night and deal with the situation in the morning. But by dawn, the girl's gone.
Delfina Castagnino
Pilar lives in the south. She recently lost her father and is now on her own. María came to visit her, to keep her company and take a break from the boyfriend she's on the point of leaving. Neither has the wherewithal to comfort the other. Neither knows what she wants. They barely know what they don't want. They don't want to go back to their lives. They don't want to think about the future. They don't want to be alone. They don't want their holiday to end. A timber yard about to close, a horse and a dog, a few men, a little alcohol and the cold waters of the southern lakes.
Diego Lerman
Argentina-Spain-France
95 min.
In the Argentina of 1982, María Teresa is a teacher at the Colegio Nacional in Buenos Aires. When María Teresa, hounded by a slight, perhaps non-existent smell of tobacco, starts hiding in the boys' toilets to catch the smokers and have them punished, she gradually discovers a darkly exciting habit. Her eyes miss nothing. The eyes of the jailer, of the master... or perhaps of a pervert.
Patricio Guzmán
France-Germany-Chile
90 min.
Nostalgia de la luz is a film about the distance between the sky and the earth, between light and human beings and the mysterious comings and goings arising between them. At a height of 3,000 metres, astronomers from all over the world gather in the Atacama Desert to observe the stars of northern Chile. Here, the transparency of the sky means that you can see to the very limits of the universe. Below, the dryness of the ground keeps human remains intact forever: mummies, explorers, miners, Indians and the skeletons of the political prisoners of the dictatorship. While the astronomers seek extraterrestrial life, a group of women move stones: they're looking for their relatives.
Daniel Vega, Diego Vega
Clemente, a moneylender of few words, is a new hope for Sofía, his single neighbour, devoted to the October worship of Our Lord of the Miracles. They're brought together over a new-born baby, fruit of Clemente's relationship with a prostitute who's nowhere to be found. While Clemente is looking for the girl's mother, Sofía cares for the baby and looks after the moneylender's house. With the arrival of these beings in his life, Clemente has the opportunity to reconsider his emotional relations with people.
Anahí Berneri
It's an afternoon at home like any other for Julieta, a young mother recently separated from her husband. Her two children are raising hell in the tiny flat, when the smallest one suddenly falls and hurts himself. Julia grabs the kids and rushes to the hospital, where help and understanding give way to terrible suspicions.
Pablo Larraín
Chile-Mexico-Germany
98 min.
55 year-old Mario types out autopsy reports in a morgue. Mid-Chilean coup d?état in 1973, he daydreams of his neighbour Nancy, a cabaret dancer, who disappears mysteriously on September 11. Following a violent search of her house by the Army, he learns that they have arrested her brother and father, a staunch Communist and supporter of Salvador Allende. Beside himself with worry over the disappearance of his would-be lover, Mario searches frantically for Nancy.
Natalia Smirnoff
María's husband and children give her a puzzle for her 50th birthday. She's delighted, and finds it a great discovery. Not only does the patient housewife have fun doing the puzzles, she's also really good at them. Overflowing with enthusiasm for her new-found passion, she goes back to the shop where they bought the gift for another puzzle. There her eye is caught by a notice on the message board: "Partner for puzzle tournament wanted". María musters her courage and, despite her family's misgivings, answers the announcement.