Panorama

Rodolfo and Beatriz are the parents of teenagers Jessica and Juan. Together they form a perfect dysfunctional family. Rodolfo leaves for work every morning, but actually he’s unemployed. Beatriz, worrying that she is looking older, has a flirtation with her buff gym trainer. Jessica finds herself in a love triangle with her boyfriend and her best friend. And, Juan’s girlfriend has a little surprise for him. This is the life of an ordinary middle-class family in Tijuana. While living under the same roof, they scurry about their days, trying to hide their secrets from one another.

How far will you go to protect your family? Jorge is a peaceful, hard-working man who seeks a simple, quiet life for himself and his family. One day, he is mugged and humiliated by a gang of thugs led by Kalule, a delinquent from his neighbourhood. This event infuriates his son as much for Jorge’s meek acceptance as for the act itself. The son, looking for retribution, ends up getting himself shot. Kalule is sent to jail and when he gets out 18 months later, begins a campaign of terror against Jorge and his family.

Best friends Martin and Tomaz set out for a weekend together to southern Brazil that will change their relationship forever. For both of them, the brief excursion back to this coastal town where Martin’s family is from becomes a journey into themselves. Seashore is a wander through the borderlands between love and friendship, exploring sexual orientation and personal identity. The outstanding camerawork picks up on the protagonists’ complex emotional states in the same way as the soundtrack captures the roaring of the sea: gentle and powerful in equal measure.

After pushing his mother to her limit with a prank involving a water balloon and a baby stroller, Tomás is sent to live in Mexico City with big brother Sombra and his roommate Santos, who are up to their own shenanigans while the rest of the students at their university are on strike. Malcontent and in search of a cause, the trio embarks on an oddball quest when they learn their late father’s musical hero, Epigmenio Cruz, a man who once moved Bob Dylan to tears, is dying.

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.

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.

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.

Ten-year-old Eric finds himself almost overnight living in a grungy quarter of downtown Bogotá with his father, Gabriel, whom he barely knows. Gabriel is a carpenter by trade, but struggles to make ends meet.  He works doing odd jobs for Maria Isabel, an upper middle class woman with children of her own, who takes an interest in their situation. Over the Christmas holidays she invites them to come to stay at her family's luxurious country villa.