2015

Brimming with gentle humour and a dogged sense of the strength of community during hard times, Salvadoran director Arturo Menéndez’s charming feature debut is a character study of a simple piñata salesman named Don Cleo whose life is turned upside down when he falls victim to an extortionist he can’t possibly afford to pay. The harder he tries to raise the funds, the deeper into trouble he gets. If Don Cleo hopes to survive, he'll have to face his fears and stand up to his tormentors.

After meeting at a party, Luciana and Pedro... embark on a spur of the moment journey together that takes them to the forest. As they explore the beauty in the nature that surrounds them, they camp out under the stars, go on hikes, indulge in the passions of their encounter, and discuss their personal beliefs surrounding love, obligations, and attraction.

Best friends Ras and Calvin are street artists with limited resources but big ambitions to alter their local surroundings for the better. The two traverse Cali on bike and skateboard, scouting for surfaces to decorate with whatever paint they can scavenge. Inspired by news of the Arab Spring uprisings, they dream of collaborating on a vast mural (with graffiti artist Mario Wize) that will express solidarity with Egypt's student demonstrators.

For best buddies Jonathan, John-Jaime and Presi playing music together is the ultimate pursuit, a dream they hold on to against all odds. But the end of high school marks the beginning of their last summer together. Set in Buenaventura, a rough and tumble port city on the west coast of Colombia, the young men must face the fact that their remarkable talent and drive may not be enough to fulfill their dreams of a musical career.

Nélida, a young Indigenous Andean woman, has the ability to speak with spirits of the water, and thus she feels a deep responsibility to defend the pristine lakes that surround her home. She is studying to be a lawyer in Lima so that she can help her community. However before she can finish, a gold deposit valued in the millions is found under her village; the extraction will surely threaten the surrounding waters of her community and she must summon up all her powers to stop the mining.

A divorced taxi driver shows up with a black eye at the home of his ex-wife’s new family; he’s been invited to dinner and he desperately wants to reconnect with his young daughter. A professional magician’s car breaks down and he ends up spending an emotionally intense night with a young, widowed toll booth worker. A singer-songwriter serving a lengthy prison sentence is released for one night to perform at a local community centre.

A divorced taxi driver shows up with a black eye at the home of his ex-wife’s new family; he’s been invited to dinner and he desperately wants to reconnect with his young daughter. A professional magician’s car breaks down and he ends up spending an emotionally intense night with a young, widowed toll booth worker. A singer-songwriter serving a lengthy prison sentence is released for one night to perform at a local community centre.

With an acute eye and an understated sense of humour, La Salada explores the experiences of Korean, Bolivian and Taiwanese immigrants living in Argentina. The film is structured around three intertwining stories that take place in La Salada — the largest unregulated market in Buenos Aires: a Korean father and daughter prepare for an arranged marriage, a young Bolivian man searches for work, and a Taiwanese DVD seller tries to woo a young woman to be his girlfriend.

Described by writer-director Pablo Fendrik as a “Mesopotamian Western,” El Ardor stars Gael García Bernal as Kaí, a mysterious shaman who emerges from the Río Paraná to defend a clan of tobacco farmers against a band of cold-blooded land-grabbers. But this is no ordinary Western. Filmed on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, near the border of Brazil and Argentina, the lush, claustrophobic jungle with its birds, insects and prowling animals becomes as much a part of the story as the misfortunes of its characters.

Described by writer-director Pablo Fendrik as a “Mesopotamian Western,” El Ardor stars Gael García Bernal as Kaí, a mysterious shaman who emerges from the Río Paraná to defend a clan of tobacco farmers against a band of cold-blooded land-grabbers. But this is no ordinary Western. Filmed on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, near the border of Brazil and Argentina, the lush, claustrophobic jungle with its birds, insects and prowling animals becomes as much a part of the story as the misfortunes of its characters.