Tótem and Toll
Alemania (Germany)
(Year: 2023; Director: María Zanetti)
Sixteen-year-old Lola is studying for her resits when the possibility of a semester in Germany comes up. Lola wants to go, but her family, bogged down by her elder sister's psychiatric problems, don't want her to make the trip. The lack of stability and exhaustion in the ties with her family prompt Lola to go ahead with her idea and set out to find new experiences that make her see both herself and the circumstances that surround her with different eyes.
Blondi
(Country: Argentina, Spain, United States; Year: 2023; Director: Dolores Fonzi; Writer: Dolores Fonzi, Laura Paredes; Stars: Dolores Fonzi, Carla Peterson, Rita Cortese, Toto Rovito, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Milagros Iturriza, Federico Pereyra, Simón Saieg, Felipe Saade, Micaela Rey, Elvira Onetto, Margarita Israel Gurman, Celeste Chu, Lucila Mangone, Gala Núñez)
Blondi and Mirko are best friends. They love living together, listen to the same music, watch the same films, they like smoking grass, going to concerts, they share the same friends, everything is perfect between them… but even if they look almost the same age, Blondi is Mirko’s mother.
The Castle (El Castillo)
(Country: Argentina, France; Year: 2023; Director: Martín Benchimol; Stars: Justina Olivo, Alexia Caminos Olivo)
The inheritance from her former boss is a poisoned chalice for Indigenous housekeeper Justina: a huge, derelict mansion in the back of beyond. Justina’s daughter Alexia would much prefer to return to Buenos Aires and work as a car mechanic. A dark fairy tale.
Clara Gets Lost In The Woods (Clara Se Pierde En El Bosque)
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Camila Fabbri; Writer: Camila Fabbri, Martín Kraut; Stars: Camila Peralta, Agustín Gagliardi, Camila Fabbri, Florencia Gómez García, Sofía Palomino, Julián Larquier Tellarini, Pedro García Narbaitz, Julián Infantino, Martina Chamorro, Maitina De Marco)
Clara is on her way out of the city. She receives a message from Martina, her childhood friend, the person she'd been with the night of the tragedy at the República Cromañón club, bringing the idea of motherhood into the foreground. This shot of the present day and reality in a series of WhatsApp texts, home videos and family lunches sparks an exhaustive look back at her own adolescence and that of her friends in a city ravaged by the crisis and by a tragedy.
The Echo (El Eco)
(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Tatiana Huezo)
In a remote and solitary valley, punished by winter and drought, the children learn to gaze upon death, illness and love.
Clara Gets Lost In The Woods and The Settlers
Heroic
(Country: Mexico, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: David Zonana; Writer: David Zonana; Stars: Santiago Sandoval Carbajal, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica del Carmen, Esteban Caicedo, Carlos Gerardo García, Isabel Yudice)
Luis, an 18-year-old boy with Indigenous roots, enters the Heroic Military College in hopes of ensuring a better future. There, he encounters a rigid and institutionally violent system designed to turn him into a perfect soldier.
Los Impactados
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Lucía Puenzo; Writer: Lucía Puenzo, Lorena Ventimiglia; Stars: Mariana Di Girólamo, Germán Palacios, Guillermo Pfening, Osmar Núñez, Mariana Anghileri)
The injuries suffered by Ada when she is struck by lightning during a storm in the countryside affects her both physically and psychologically. As well as the visible consequences, she is worried about a series of strange symptoms she can't control: visual and auditory hallucinations, electric shocks and momentary confusions that end up distancing her from her former life. She finds support in a group of lightning survivors.
A Ravaging Wind (El Viento Que Arrasa)
(Country: Uruguay, Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Paula Hernández)
Gripped by the blind faith of her father, Reverend Pearson, Leni accompanies him on his evangelical mission. A banal accident forces them to stop at El Gringo's garage. When the Reverend becomes obsessed with saving the soul of Tapioca, the mechanic's son, Leni realizes the time has come to take her fate into her own hands.
Section opening night film
The Settlers (Los Colonos)
(Country: Chile, Argentina; Year: 2023; Director: Felipe Gálvez; Writer: Felipe Gálvez)
19th century drama. A man on an expedition is forced to take part in a massacre. Afterwards he forms a bond with the only survivor.
A Strange Path
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2023; Director: Guto Parente; Writer: Guto Parente; Stars: Lucas Limeira, Carlos Francisco, Tarzia Firmino, Rita Cabaço)
A young filmmaker returns to his hometown and attempts to reconnect with his father as the pandemic rapidly accelerates across Brazil. However, their relationship proves to be more complicated with increasingly bizarre phenomena occurring as they get closer.
Los Impactados and A Strange Path
Toll (Pedágio)
(Country: Brazil, Portugal; Year: 2022; Director: Carolina Markowicz; Writer: Carolina Markowicz; Stars: Maeve Jinkings, Thomas Aquino, Isac Graça, Caio Macedo, Aline Marta Maia, Kauan Alvarenga)
Suellen, a toll booth attendant, realises she can use her job to raise some extra money illegally. But this is only for a noble cause: to send her son to an expensive gay conversion workshop led by a renowned foreign priest.
Section closing night film
Tótem
(Country: Mexico, Denmark, France; Year: 2023; Director: Lila Avilés; Writer: Lila Avilés; Stars: Naíma Sentíes, Monserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Teresita Sánchez)
In a large house, friends and family meet for a dual ritual: it is the birthday of young father and painter Tona, but also a farewell ceremony.