COCOTE
(Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, 2017, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Germany/ Qatar, 106 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner of the Best Film Award at the Locarno Film Festival’s Signs of Life competition—a recognition that marked a milestone for Dominican cinema—Cocote is a rapturous crime fable set in the Dominican Republic and directed by Nelson de los Santos Arias.
The film follows Alberto, a kind-hearted gardener returning home to attend his father’s funeral. When he discovers that a powerful local figure is responsible for his father’s death, Alberto realizes that he’s been summoned by his family to avenge the murder. It’s an unthinkable act—especially for him, an evangelical Christian. But as pressure mounts, he sees few ways out.
Questions of faith, tradition, and honor course through this electrifying film, which, seemingly at the speed of thought itself, jumps between film formats, colors, and aspect ratios, radically envisioning a community torn asunder by senseless violence. Starring Vicente Santos, Judith Rodríguez, and Yuberbi de la Rosa, and with nods to the films of Glauber Rocha and the fiction of Roberto Bolaño, Cocote marks the coming of age of Dominican cinema in the international film circuit.
“A dazzling story of homecoming, grief, and revenge
infused with the energy and rituals of the Dominican Republic.”
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