Guasábara Cine

An unwanted pregnancy triggers the journey into adulthood for Makenya, a Dominican-Haitian teenager who lives in the Batey, a community surrounded by sugarcane fields.

An intimate family party takes place in an exclusive residential neighborhood. Leo celebrates the birth of Izan, her first son, together with her husband Julio, her sister Claudia and her friend Hector. During the party, Claudia goes to fetch her nephew from his crib and discovers to her dismay that he has disappeared, along with Luciana, the nanny. No one has seen anything. The stress and shock bring up old mental problems in Leo. She enters a downward spiral and gradually loses touch with reality. She begins to doubt not only her life, but also her own identity.

Olivia & the Clouds explores love's complexities through a Rashomon effect. Olivia, haunted by a past love, hides it under her bed. She trades flowers with this ghost in exchange for comforting rain clouds. Barbara, rejected by Mauricio, escapes reality through fantastical stories. Mauricio, full of regrets, is swallowed by the earth. Ramon, smitten by Olivia, witnesses the growth of a strange plant mirroring her. With surreal elements, the film delves into the enduring power of love's memory.

A rapturous crime fable set in the Dominican Republic, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’ COCOTE follows Alberto, a kind-hearted gardener returning home to attend his father’s funeral. When he discovers that a powerful local figure is responsible for his father’s death, Alberto realizes that he’s been summoned by his family to avenge the murder. It’s an unthinkable act — especially for him, an Evangelical Christian. But as pressure mounts, he sees few ways out. Questions of faith, tradition and honor course through this electrifying film, which, seemingly at the speed of thought itself, jumps between film formats, colors, and aspect ratios, radically envisioning a community torn asunder by senseless violence.

Liborio is a peasant who disappears in a hurricane and returns as a prophet. He says he’s been given a mission: to bring the good and take away the evil, curing the sick and teaching by example. People begin to congregate by his side and they move to the mountains to have total freedom and develop his dream of an independent community. Everything changes when the invading US Marines wants to disarm and disband the community. Liborio wants to avoid a confrontation but they know they can't run forever.

Follows the work of the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in a poor Dominican community, and the efforts of their only surviving original member.