Joanna Montero

Santa, a peasant woman loyal to the Revolution, is sent to guard Andrés, a gay writer who is under house arrest, considered “ untrustworthy” for his ideas and sexuality by the Cuban authorities. Set in a small village in eastern Cuba during the early 1980s, this poignant political drama depicts an encounter between two deeply thoughtful souls on opposite sides of a profound cultural divide. Both have experienced deep loss, and both know the damaging effects of isolation and oppression. Even so, the cavernous ideological divide separating them — the same one that has separated Cuban friends and kin for over 50 years — has until now seemed insurmountable.

In Old Havana, Cuba Street brings together the lives of four women who embody the resilience and fragility of an island in crisis. Anabel, a young actress, struggles between continuing her career in Cuba or emigrating to Europe to work as a cleaner. Dayana, 30, dreams of traveling to Russia and transforming herself physically to become the woman she has always felt she is. Mailén, a mother of 3, carries the scars of childhood and a relationship marked by violence, while fighting to support her family with optimism. Elvira, 74, survives scarcity while caring for her ill husband.

Walfrido Larduet, a lonely electrical inspector, dreams of the Red Woman, whose image persists and becomes an obsession. Something tells him she is near. Over the course of a day, Walfrido will follow her trail as he travels through the suburbs of an infested city.

Lía and Manuel live illegally in a closed house. Tania, trying to regain her rights over the space that her uncle left her, intends to evict them. But the couple is not ready to leave and Tania decides to retrench on the top floor of the house. The war that starts ends up moving them closer.

Filmmaker Daniela Muñoz Barroso has lost most of her hearing, and can barely hear high frequencies at all. She uses her eyes not only to see, but also to listen. And yet Barroso has developed a fascination for Gladys Esther Linares, aka Mafifa, a female musician who played the bell, a metal percussion instrument prominent in Cuban conga. Mafifa died 40 years ago, at a far-too-young age.

Vicenta Bravo is a woman with a special gift for reading cards and fortelling people's future. Every day folk flock to her home looking for solutions to their problems. Vicenta lives happily with her son, until he decides to leave Cuba and everything starts to fall apart. Thrown into a crisis that prevents her from seeing what's happening around her, Vicenta will embark on a journey taking her inland to a country where everyone seems to have lost their faith.

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Yolanda, a Cuban woman, goes from dancing her heart out at a house party to running against the clock to find her son and skip town once a video circulates from that gathering that seems to incriminate her.

A rare independent film from Cuba, this charming and tender portrait of female friendship follows three hair-salon employees as they hit the town looking for excitement in those parts of Havana that tourists rarely see.

Celeste García, a 60-year-old former schoolteacher and current guide at the Havana Planetarium, is looking for a life change. When a group of aliens land in Cuba offering earthlings a chance to visit their planet, Celeste signs up for the journey hoping for a better and more fulfilling life.

Nima Shirali’s subtly humorous film follows a community tucked between Uganda’s Katwe Salt Lake and a national park. Through the eyes of an enthusiastic teacher, a jaded caretaker and a sharp-witted mother, the salt lake is seen as a vital lifeline. Between harvests and floods, the lake transforms from a role that is central to local identity and offering a promising industry, to become a symbol of failed development. The low price of salt adds to the woes of toxic labour conditions. And yet, for many in Katwe it remains the only path of opportunity. As a flamboyant, retro-styled local politician pushes grand plans onto a crumbling mine and community, the local population reflects on what the future holds.

The story of an Afro-Cuban group who kept alive songs and dances their ancestor had brought aboard the slave ship from Africa. They were so specific that around 200 years later, a village of Africans watched them, joined in singing, and said simply, joyously: "They Are We". This film tells the story of how they found each other and how they work to be able to reunite.

On a tiny island in Eastern Cuba, the inhabitants gather around to tell stories that have marked them. Their memories and fears float around like visiting spirits and a sense of imminent liberation is present. A poignant take on the need to overcome the past in order to face the present.