Opening Film (In competition)
Patricio Guzmán
"In Chile, when the sun rises, it must climb hills, walls and mountain tops before reaching the last stone of the Cordillera. In my country, the Cordillera is everywhere. But for the Chilean citizens, it is an unknown territory. After going North to make Nostalgia for the Light and South for The Pearl Button, I now feel ready to film this immense backbone and to explore its mysteries, its powerful revelations of Chile's history past and present" (Patricio Guzmán). L'Oeil d'Or Award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Festival.
Closing film out of competition
Jayro Bustamante
Guatemala - France
96 min.
With the words "If you cry, I'll kill you" ringing in their ears, Alma and her sons are murdered in Guatemala's armed conflict. Thirty years later, a criminal case is brought against Enrique, a retired general who oversaw the genocide. But he's acquitted through a mistrial and the spirit of La Llorona is unleashed to wander the world like a lost soul amongst the living. At night, Enrique starts to hear her wailing. His wife and daughter believe he's having bouts of Alzheimer's-related dementia. Little could they suspect that their new housekeeper, Alma, is there to mete out the vengeance the trial did not. Premiered at Venice Film Festival (Giornati degli autori).
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2018
Armando Capó
Cuba - Costa Rica - France
85 min.
Cuba, summer 1994. In full swing of the Special Period, one of the biggest crises in the country’s history, thousands of Cuban rafters try to make the illegal crossing to the United States, not knowing if they’ll survive. With the start of the holidays, Carlos sets about enjoying a carefree August, kicking around with his friends and falling in love for the first time. He knows very little about his country’s uncertain future, until, one at a time, his neighbours and friends leave in search of a better life as friendships break and families separate. In this hot summer, Carlos’s world will turn upside down.
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2014
Films in Progress 32
Andrés Wood
Chile - Argentina - Brazil
105 min.
Chile, the early 1970s. A violent far-right nationalist group is looking to overthrow Allende's government. Amid the fervor of crime and conspiracy, group members Inés, her husband Justo and their best friend Gerardo pull off a political crime that changes the course of history. Entangled at the same time in a dangerous and passionate love triangle, the shadow of betrayal will forever separate them. That is, until 40 years later when revenge and obsession compel Gerardo to jumpstart the nationalist cause of his youth. But Inés is now a powerful businesswoman and as the police monitor Gerardo and his growing home arsenal, she will do whatever it takes to keep him from revealing her and her husband Justo's political and sexual past.
Federico Veiroj
Uruguay - Argentina - Germany
97 min.
During the 70s, the regional economy attracted numerous opportunists to Uruguay. The institutions were bankrupt; there was a military government; the insurgents were behind bars and, for the sectors of poor reputation in the Brazilian and Argentine economies, Uruguay’s financial market seemed like the perfect place to make money disappear. That’s how Humberto Brause sets out on a meteoric career buying and selling foreign currency, sponsored by his father-in-law, a veteran in the business of capital flight. Blinded by his excessive ambition, Humberto steamrollers everyone that gets in his way. Finally running the family business, he accepts a suspicious job: to launder more money than he’s ever seen in his life.
Gael García Bernal
Two teens from San Gregorio Atlapulco, Cagalera and Moloteco, are desperate to escape from the oppressive circumstances of their existence. Hearing about the opportunity to purchase membership in an electricians' guild, which could transform their lives, they enter the spiral of Mexico City's dark criminal world in a bid to buy their freedom. Special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Romina Paula
Romina returns to her family home after having had a child. Separated from the father of Ramón, her son, she takes refuge in the home of her mother, Mónica. There she is submerged in her mother’s pace, and in her own pace as a daughter, as she tries to figure out what she wants. On a visit to Buenos Aires, Romina teaches German, while trying to resume her single life, to go out at night. She wants to know what she was like before the experience of love for her son. She needs to understand who she is, returning to her origins and rebuilding part of the family history. Directorial debut by the writer, playwright and actress Romina Paula. Presented in Rotterdam Festival's Bright Future section.
Sebastián Muñoz
Chile - Argentina - Belgium
95 min.
San Bernardo, Chile, 1970. One night on a drinking spree, the young 20 year old, solitary and self-centred Jaime stabs his best friend in what appears to be an outburst of passion. In jail he meets El Potro, an older, respected man he approaches looking for protection, affection and acceptance. Jaime becomes The Prince and discovers love and loyalty as he observes the violent struggle for power in the prison. Selected for the Settimana della Critica at the Venice Festival.
Films in Progress 34
Diego Vega, Daniel Vega
In the early 90s, Roberto, an 18-year-old boy lost in life, leaves a violent Peru and travels to Montreal to join his father, Bob Montoya, an immigrant who fled from his country years ago and who now lives with his new Canadian family. With male pride, Bob strives to show his son his best version of the North American dream marked by his own prejudices. The reunion between father and son will be forever forged by a violence from which they have been unable to escape.
Paula Hernández
Argentina - Uruguay
107 min.
A middle-aged woman and her 14-year-old daughter, a sleepwalker, in full swing of her awakening. A married couple on the verge of a crisis nobody mentions. A ritualistic, inbred family. Grandmother, siblings, cousins. Summer, sweat, alcohol, traditions. Naked bodies, changing bodies, and the glances cast at those new bodies. A New Year celebration in the family’s ancestral country home is the stifling confinement needed to arouse the sleepwalkers.
Lucía Garibaldi
Uruguay - Argentina - Spain
80 min.
The peace and quiet of a small seaside town is disturbed by the suspicion of sharks arriving to its coast. Rosina, a 14-year-old teenager, thinks she saw something in the sea, but nobody really seems to listen to her. When her father takes her to work looking after houses, she meets Joselo, a fisherman a little older than herself. Among dirty pools, majestic gardens and deserted beaches, Rosina starts to feel something new: the desire to narrow the distance between her own body and that of Joselo. But he shows little interest in her advances. To attract his attention she comes up with a twisted and rather clumsy plan, moving invisibly and dangerously, as though taking her inspiration from the presence of the mysterious predators. Best director award at Sundance.
Films in Progress 34
Alejandro Landes
Colombia - Argentina - Netherlands - Germany - Sweden - Uruguay
102 min.
On the summit of an imposing mountain, in what looks at first glance like a summer camp, eight guerrilla children going by the name of ‘The Monkeys’ live under the attentive gaze of a paramilitary sergeant. Their sole mission is clear: to take care of the doctor, an American woman they’ve taken hostage. When this mission is threatened, the trust between them will come under suspicion. Special Jury Prize at Sundance.
César Díaz
France - Belgium - Guatemala
77 min.
Guatemala, 2018. The whole country hangs on the trials of the soldiers who started the Civil War as the victims make their statements one after the other. Ernesto, a young anthropologist working for the Forensic Foundation, works to identify those who disappeared during the conflict. One day while listening to an old woman tell her story, he thinks he’s found a clue which could take him to his father, a guerrilla fighter who also disappeared during that period. Against his mother’s wishes, he throws himself body and soul into the case with the aim of learning the truth.
Jayro Bustamante
Guatamela - France - Luxembourg
107 min.
Pablo is a 40-year-old married father of two wonderful children. A role model and a practicing evangelical Christian, his perfect traditional life begins to crack when he falls in love with a man and his feelings clash with his beliefs. His life becomes an inferno of repressive intolerance when his family and his church decide to do whatever it takes to cure him, forcing Pablo to suppress his urges with therapy. Presented in the Berlinale's Panorama section.
Juan Solanas
Argentina - Uruguay - France
86 min.
The Green Wave narrates the struggle for legal abortion in Argentina, through a journey of more than 5,000 kilometres, accompanied by the victims’ brave testimonies and the key female voices of those who played the lead part in this memorable voyage. Special screening at the Cannes Festival.
Special Screenings
Not in competition