History is Written at Night by Alejandro Alonso Estrella
This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) lineup boasts a variety of titles from Latin America. The festival's focus is on recent work by talented new filmmakers and highlights strong voices in independent cinema through film retrospectives and series, including more than 50 films and short films by Latin American filmmakers. By putting new voices in the spotlight, and showcasing new archival screenings of cinema of the region, IFFR highlights and deconstructs the definition of what independent Latin American cinema can be.
Three Latin American short films are nominated in the festival’s ‘Tiger Short Competition.’ The Cuban short film History is Written at Night by Alejandro Alonso Estrella is an eerie story that uses Cuba’s blackouts as the backdrop of its mystery. The Ecuadorean short film Los dos lados de la tortuga by Oscar Illingworth is an ode to the ancient and majestic tortoise of the Galapagos Islands.
The Brazilian short film Adrift Potentials / Potenciais a Deriva by Leonoardo Pirondi reflects on exile from Brazil from distant lands. In the ‘Tiger Competition,’ in which feature-length films are nominated, the Brazilian film Formosa Beach / Praia Formosa by Julia De Simone, the film seamlessly weaves together past and present, to create a fascinating exploration of female empowerment, and the bonds of sisterhood, cultural roots, and decolonization that transcend mere storytelling.
Dominican film Aire: Just Breathe is participating in the ‘Big Screen Competition’ category, which bridges the gap between popular, classic, and art house cinema. Directed by Leticia Tonos Paniagua, the dystopian film is set in the near future as scientists race to change the fate of humanity. It is also having its world premiere at IFFR. Selected in this same category is the Brazilian film Portrait of a Certain Orient by Marcelo Gomes. The film is about Lebanese migrants living in Brazil dwelling with the potent parable of religious intolerance and cultural differences.
IFFR highlights new directors and feature films with world premieres of the Chilean film Animalia Paradoxa by Niles Atallah, Greice the Brazilian film by Leonardo Mouramateus, and the Mexican film Una historia de amor y guerra, by Santiago Mohar Volkow. As well as, international premieres of the Mexican film The Eagle and The Worm / El águila y el gusano by Guita Schyfter, and The Passion According to G.H. A Paixão Segundo G.H) by Luis Fernando Carvalho.
The festival also includes the Dutch premieres of acclaimed international films such as The Delinquents / Los delincuentes by Rodrigo Moreno from Argentina, Power Alley / Levante by Lillah Halla from Brazil, and Lost in the Night / Perdidos en la noche by Amat Escalante from Mexico.
Through its retrospective series ‘Chile in the Heart,’ the series showcases twenty-five features and shorts covering the first decade of production in exile caused by Chile’s dictatorship on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Mixing established classics with shorts and television works hardly seen since their original presentation, the series includes eleven Latin American productions.
With Chilean films in its repertoire such as The Battle of Chile: Part 1 (La Batalla de Chile), Fragments from an Unfinished Diary / Fragmentos de un diario inacabado, Dialogues of Exiles (Dialogue D’exiles), Rebelión Ahora, Reír o No Reír. The series follows the theme of the Chilean exile told by different nations, including Mexican and Cuban productions.
In its series ‘Focus: Colectivo Los Ingrávidos’ IFFR highlights the work of the Mexican filmmaking group, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, who have been producing over 500 moving image works for twelve years. The program—showing 12 immersive and subversive shorts– dives into some of their most important themes of political resistance, land, myth, and trance, all in service to a counter-capitalist, anti-mass media revolutionary vision.
Additionally, as part of its retrospectives program, the festival will screen restorations of the 1978 Colombian films by Luis Ospina, Agarrando pueblo, and Pura sangre.
