
Abner Benaim
Directing
Biography
Abner Benaim (Panamá, 1971) is a Panamanian film director, producer, screenwriter and plastic artist. His works include Yo no me llamo Rubén Blades (2018), Chance (2009) and Plaza Catedral (2021).
Known For

INVASION is a documentary about the collective memory of a country. The invasion of Panama by the U.S in 1989 serves as an excuse to explore how a people remember, transform, and often forget their past in order to re-define their identity and become who they are today.
Invasion

A paradise fractured by violence. Revisiting a 1994 terrorist attack in Panama, TROPICAL PARADISE blends investigation and personal reflection to explore trauma, silence, and the lingering imprint of a tragedy that refuses to fade.
Tropical Paradise

The story of Toña and Paquita, the housekeepers for the aristocratic González-Dubois family. These domestic employees have been mistreated for quite some time and they are tired of their situation. So when the family plans a shopping trip to Miami, the maids have a plan of their own; to take control of the mansion. Unexpectedly, they will also discover a family secret.
Chance

Alicia is a 42-year-old-woman whose grief has caused her estrangement from society. Her world is turned upside down when 14-year-old Chief, a young boy who looks after people’s cars, stumbles into her house, bleeding.
Plaza Catedral
Dan is getting married for the second time to Liz - and it's her first. It's a casual affair. On a beach. Just a few friends and family. Perfect.
Perfect Wedding Days

The story of one of Latin America's most beloved singer-songwriters in a journey across his 50-year career. In an intimate way, the film gives us a chance to get to know the artist, his music, and the stories behind them.
Ruben Blades Is Not My Name

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.
Short Plays

Five shorts spanning a century on lives impacted by the Panama Canal. Men, women and children who are influenced by the existence of the "Canal", the event that changed the history of not only a country but the world.
Panama Canal Stories

Having not received their salaries for months and seeing their bosses, who claim to be bankrupt, squandering money on parties and dinners for high society, two employees decide to charge their late payment, creating a tense atmosphere, with unusual and hilarious situations that expose, in a humorous way, the relationship between them.
Vai Ter Troco

Set in the summer of 1944, examining the impact of a polio epidemic on a Newark, NJ community and its children.
Nemesis

The death of a father and a chilling encounter deep in Panama’s untamed jungle trigger a personal exploration of life and death through encounters with a diverse collection of people who face mortality’s physical and symbolic borders in their life and work.
Wild Gleaming Space

In his documentary feature debut, filmmaker Mauro Colombo immerses himself in the Darién Gap, a dense and mysterious jungle that divides Panama and Colombia. At the dangerous border between the two countries, guerrillas, immigrants, indigenous people, farmers, drug traffickers, local police and wild animals cross paths.
Inland

A documentary about domestic workers and their peculiar relationship with their employers. Rich and poor, under the same roof, share entire lives and as a consequence, very complex emotional ties arise.