Latin American Film Festival

May 5 -13, 2022

Ottawa Art Gallery, Alma Duncan Salon
10 Daly Avenue, Level 3

Welcome to our 25th Latin American Film Festival!

Founded by the Canadian Film Institute (Canada’s oldest non-profit, non-governmental cultural organization dedicated to the moving image), the Latin American Film Festival in Ottawa is the largest ongoing celebration of the cinemas of Latin America in all of Canada.

Since our first edition in 1997, the LAFF has presented over 300 films from 20 Latin American countries. In addition, we have welcomed more than 40 guest film artists from various Latin American nations and attracted over 80,000 spectators attending our Festival screenings, artist talks, and special gala events.

We are thrilled that this 25th edition will once again be held in our home venue, the Alma Duncan Salon at the Ottawa Art Gallery. We can’t wait to welcome you back to actual in-person screenings as you experience the incredible richness and diversity of contemporary Latin America cinema.

Enjoy the Festival!

Tom McSorley
Executive Director
Canadian Film Institute

Single Ticket
$14

One ticket for one screening.
Find ticket links in the schedule below. Pre-ordering is recommended; seats are reserved.

Applicable discounts:
CFI Supporter* members: 30% off
CFI Cinephile** and Cinephile PLUS members: FREE

6-Film Pack
$60

Six tickets to use throughout the Festival.
After the ticket pack is ordered, use it to order six tickets for $0.
Find ticket links in the schedule below. Pre-ordering is recommended; seats are reserved.

CFI Supporter* members price: $50

ORDER ONLINE

Actor Tenoch Huerta will attend the screening and participate in a Q&A.

Son of Monarchs (Hijo de Monarcas)

Butterflies / Transformation / Journey Home

After the death of his grandmother, Mendel (Tenoch Huerta), a Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown nestled in the monarch butterfly forests of Michoacán. Once back home, he is forced to confront his past traumas, launching him on a path toward, he hopes, a positive metamorphosis. Mendel reintroduces himself to people from his past: his childhood friend, Vicente, his beloved niece who’s about to be married, and his estranged brother, Símon, who still resents the fact that Mendel left after the death of their parents. Reassessing his life in Mexico and the one he is leading back in New York, Mendel’s scientific training both hinders and helps him on the journey toward reconciling his past and present in this intimate, visually gorgeous drama of identity. SON OF MONARCHS won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Feature Film Prize Winner at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021 and the Grand Jury Prize/New American Competition at the 2021 Seattle International Film Festival.

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Something Blue (Algo Azul)

Bad Romance / Screwball / Charming

A sly commentary on the contemporary obsession with ‘dream weddings,’ SOMETHING BLUE is the amusingly twisted tale of Ana, who works at an upscale hotel dressed as a model bride in order to drum up marital business. This day, however, she escapes the hotel in a beautiful wedding dress and decides that she must get married that same day. In other words, she must put everything together before she is caught by Lucia, the owner of the dress, or the police. On this crazy, unpredictable journey, Ana begins reflects on true love while trying to elude those coming after her and on another important question: who will be her husband? Written, produced, and directed by Mariel García Spooner, SOMETHING BLUE is her light, lively debut feature.

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Killing the Dead (Matar a un Muerto)

Atrocity / Dictatorship / Moral Dilemma

Set in 1978 during the ruthless dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner, this intriguing drama revolves around Pastor and Dionisio, two men doing an unusual (and grisly) job. After the regime’s soldiers murder Stroessner’s opponents, they send their bodies downriver, where Pastor, the boss, and Dionisio, his young assistant, are tasked with dragging them into the forest and burying them. Each day they are told how many ‘packages’ to expect. One day, however, a ‘package’ turns out to be still alive. He is an Argentinian named Mario. Pastor and Dionisio know that if they allow him to remain alive, they will be in big trouble, and big trouble in Stroessner’s Paraguay means being killed. Each of them wants the other to execute Mario, but neither of them can bring himself to pull the trigger. What will they do? KILLING THE DEAD was the Paraguayan entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

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Spider (Araña)

Extremism / Political Violence / Upheaval

In the early 1970s, Inés, her husband Justo, and their best friend Gerardo were part of a militant right-wing faction dedicated to the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government. In the intervening decades, General Augusto Pinochet's repressive military regime comes and goes, democracy in Chile is restored, and Allende becomes a martyr in the popular imagination. Now, four decades later, Inés and Justo are affluent, respected businesspeople, happy to keep their youthful radicalism concealed in a historical moment almost no one wants to revisit. But Gerardo has stridently held on to his right-wing convictions. When he is arrested for murder and police discover an arsenal in his house, his case might well implicate his one-time allies Inés and Justo, who now will do anything to keep Gerardo from exposing their shared, troubled history. As Toronto International Film Festival programmer Diana Sanchez writes, “SPIDER is both a tension-filled entertainment and a potent cautionary tale.” Gripping. From the award-winning director of VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN (2012) and MACHUCA (2004, presented at LAFF in 2005).

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Horsemen of Paradise

Song / Traditional Culture / Scenic Beauty

In the remote, unexplored regions of Colombia, the Plains appear as a paradise, an amazing experience in which the region’s enigmatic natural beauty is revealed in song and verse. This breathtakingly beautiful area of land, which inspires the ranchers’ work songs, and declared part of Colombia’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, is the musical inspiration for the imaginative universe of Grammy Award-winning rancher musician storyteller Cholo Valderrama. Valderrama’s incredible creative celebrations of this fiercely vibrant rural culture combines music with mythic landscapes populated by horses and riders. HORSEMEN OF PARADISE is a vivid, idiosyncratic documentary portrait of this artist, these ranchers, and a truly unforgettable landscape.

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Liborio

Spirituality / Colonialism / Liberation

While it begins with a dirt-poor farmer, this incredible story ends with a possibility of radical social transformation. Humble farmer Olivorio (‘Liborio’) Mateo disappears without a trace during a hurricane in the year 1908 in the south of the Dominican Republic. His family and fellow villagers think he is dead, but then he suddenly reappears claiming to be a mission from heaven. From then on, his prophecies and healing powers attract many followers, and he retreats into the mountains with them to start a commune. Immediately after its foundation, this newly formed community arouses the suspicions of authorities. Things get even worse after the 1916 American invasion, when the drive for freedom and independence develops into an armed struggle. Told from multiple interwoven perspectives, this amazing tale of the fight for self-determination still resonates over a century later.

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The Major (El Mayor)

War / Biography / Historical Epic

This absorbing historical drama is inspired by Ignacio Agramonte, a legendary Cuban patriot who challenged the dominance of Spanish troops during colonial times in Cuba in the mid-19th century. Based on actual events of his childhood and youth, the film charts Agramonte’s extraordinary rise from a humble Creole family to his becoming a leading figure the wars of independence against the Spanish. As he joins the dangerous struggle, he also tries to balance political action with his passionate devotion to his wife, Amalia. As the conflict intensifies, Agramonte’s choices will have serious consequences for him, for Amalia, and for Cuba. Released after his untimely death in 2019, the final film by the late Rigoberto Lopez (we have previously presented two of his films at LAFF: FROM SON TO SALSA in 1997 and FORBIDDEN FLIGHTS in 2015) is an impressive period drama that illuminates brilliantly the extraordinary life of a key figure in the struggle for an independent Cuba.

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Emptiness (Vacio)

Escape / Mob / Thrilling

Lei and Wong clandestinely arrive from China in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil. Lei has only one goal: to get to New York. Wong, meanwhile, longs to bring his son from China. The future of them both lies in the dangerous, unpredictable hands of Chang, a local illegal-immigrant gangster. Chang becomes obsessed with Lei and knows he has power over her, as well as over Wong and all the other Chinese immigrants stranded in Guayaquil. While Chang may have control for the moment, Lei is resourceful and tough, and soon will mount a challenge to his empire. EMPTINESS offers a frank portrait of the trials of human migration, as well as a dramatic emotional journey faced by women caught up in male power structures. As writer-director Paul Venegas observes of his first feature film, “I see EMPTINESS as a film about the subconscious in all of us, where the eyes say much more than words. An emotional trip of a woman struggling to overcome a corrupted male dominated society.”

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Private Desert (Deserto Particular)

Searching / Scandal / Connection

Preoccupied with caring for his father, who suffers from dementia, dealing with his wayward younger sister, and generally worrying about his uncertain future, forty-year-old police officer Daniel has also just been suspended from active duty and is under internal investigation for his use of excessive force. Adding to his anxiety is the fact that Sara, his internet love interest, has stopped answering his texts. Daniel decides he’ll hit the road and drive north in search of her. He shows Sara’s picture around, but nobody seems to recognize her, until one man appears and says he can put the two in touch under very specific conditions. Intrigued, Daniel will soon be in for a dramatic surprise. In addition to numerous awards at festivals from Spain to Israel to Brazil, PRIVATE DESERT was Brazil’s official entry into the Best International Film Oscar this year. Noted Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, director of the Oscar-nominated CENTRAL STATION and MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, hails the film: “During a difficult moment for Brazil, Aly Muritiba points to another possible future – one that is sensitive, inclusive, and generous. PRIVATE DESERT is not to be missed.”

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The Broken Glass Theory (La Teoria de los Vidrios Rotos)

Investigation / Quirky / Based on a True Story

Having just solved a big case for his employer, insurance appraiser Claudio Tapia is rewarded with a remote border town given to him as his own dedicated claims territory. After a long bus ride from Montevideo, he arrives to meet the agent he’s replacing, who snorts that this assignment is no promotion, and that Claudio ‘wouldn’t be the first stranger to get his ass kicked.’ Expecting a quick turnaround and return to the city, Claudio is instead confronted by angry citizens demanding compensation, because somebody is going around every night setting cars on fire. Trying to figure things out with the ‘help’ of the local sheriff and a host of eccentric townsfolk, Claudio is suddenly in way over his head, with hilarious results. Offbeat and endearing, THE BROKEN GLASS THEORY was the Uruguayan entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

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Moon Heart (El Corazón de la Luna)

Fantasy / Offbeat / Imaginative

MOON HEART is the story of M (in an astonishing performance by Haydeé Cáceres): an old woman who lives adrift and homeless: a mere shadow that crosses her own path every day. She spends her days dreaming about her past, until one day she happens upon a tiny creature she immediately identifies with: an ant. Instead of killing it, M decides to share her world with it. Hers is a strange world made of nostalgic memories and a dark presence that haunts her, until one day a ‘mechanical angel’ arrives to help her. Cleverly blending fantasy with existential drama, this unique story unfolds without a word of dialogue, but with plenty of cinematic invention. Winner of the Best Feature Film Award at the 2021 SCI-FI London Film Festival and Best Actress at the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival.

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