Films in Progress 36 / San Sebastián 2019

El árbol rojo / The red tree (EN)

Director: 

Joan Gómez Endara

Country: 

  • Colombie
  • France
  • Panama

Year: 

2019

When his father dies, Eliécer is left to care for the half-sister he’s never met, called Esperanza. His mission is to take the girl to the capital to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby. The decision not to take responsibility for the girl, and the fulfilment of his duty, oblige Eliécer to set out on a journey on which he will accept the company of Toño, the young boatman whose dream is to make it to the city to become a boxing champion. At the end of the road, Eliécer must decide if he wants the home and family that he and Esperanza had lost.

Las vacaciones de Hilda / Hilda's Short Summer (EN)

Director: 

Agustín Banchero

Country: 

  • Brésil
  • Uruguay

Year: 

2019

Hilda is a solitary woman who lives in the town of Concepción and who deliberately breaks the ties of any kind of affectionate relationship with those in her immediate circle. Her life is interrupted by the news that the son she hasn’t seen for years is coming to visit. Thus start the preparations to improve her house and her image, both of which have deteriorated in recent times. As the date approaches, her son cancels the visit and postpones it indefinitely. Now Hilda must live a summer in the past.

Madalena (EN)

Director: 

Madiano Marcheti

Country: 

  • Brésil

Year: 

2019

In the middle of a soy field, Madalena, a trans woman, lies dead. In a poor neighborhood, Luziane lives with no great expectations about the future, while she helps her mother at work. In a gated community on the other side of the town, Cristiano tries to prove to his family that he is capable of taking care of his father’s soy plantations. In a creek, Bianca and other trans friends process their grief for Madalena as best as they can. Though they don’t know one another, Madalena’s spirit, hanging over the town, forms a bond between them. Debut film.

Nudo mixteco (EN)

Director: 

Ángeles Cruz

Country: 

  • Mexique

Year: 

2019

Three intertwined stories during the patron saint’s celebrations in San Mateo, a town in Oaxaca’s Mixteca region. Esteban, a migrant, returns after three years to discover that Chabela, his wife, is now with another man. Furious, he summons the locals to pass judgement on her at a meeting. María returns from her mother’s funeral only to be rejected by her father. Uncertain and hurt, she asks Piedad, her childhood lesbian girlfriend, to leave with her. Toña relives her own pain when her daughter is sexually abused and returns to confront her family to protect the girl.

Os Caminhos do Meu Pai / The Paths of My Father (EN)

Director: 

Mauricio Osaki

Country: 

  • Brésil
  • Pologne

Year: 

2019

Trung, a truck driver who travels constantly in North Vietnam, learns that his mother-in-law has been taken to hospital and that he has to take care of Vy, the 10-year-old daughter he hardly knows, since she's been raised by her grandmother. His next trip is already booked and, despite being loath to take his daughter with him, he has no option. Trung and Vy are forced into each other's company on an emotional journey between two generations on the roads of North Vietnam: her first and his last. Debut film.

Sin señas particulares / Non Distinguishing Features (EN)

Director: 

Fernanda Valadez

Country: 

  • Mexique

Year: 

2019

Magdalena sets out on a peregrination in search of her son, who disappeared en route to the US border. Travelling through the desolate towns and landscapes of today’s Mexico she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is on his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors ramble together.