José Rommel Tuñón

A heartfelt film about sisterhood, desires, jealousy, and youth in the never-ending tropical summer of Panama

Rosmeri is the last inhabitant of a ghost town evicted by the constant eruptions of a volcano in Costa Rica. He has found a new way of life taking care of the animals that were left in the area and working in his cafeteria. The pressure from her family and the authorities is not enough to make her leave her home. Rosmeri says that the volcano is her friend and will keep her safe; and that relationship is the force that will help her resist.

According to data collected in colonial chronicles from the 15th and 17th centuries, several American Indian peoples consider gender to be non-binary, male or female; on the contrary, diversity was the rule in Panama: the Guna people identified the Omeggids as belonging to a third gender, which leads to something beyond sexual orientation or eroticism. Nandin, Yineth, Rosario and Débora are some of the members of the Wigudun Galu group, whose name refers to an Omeggid entity from Guna mythology. They define themselves as a separate group, and their demands are specific to that group. They seek visibility, and their fight is arduous, as they are indigenous, they are trans and they are Omeggids. Broken down inside and outside your community.

This beautifully integrated, multi-threaded narrative seamlessly interweaves six stories set in radically different locations across Central America, ranging from the tropical forests of Guatemala to the skyscrapers of Panama City. When a solar storm leaves the region without power, myriad dramas unfold over the course of five days during which all conveniences of modernity are stripped away. In Costa Rica, a pastor and his daughter worry for the future of their church, while in El Salvador, a grandmother and grandson make an arduous journey into the city. A husband and wife reconnect in Honduras, as a young couple nurses a mysterious stranger back to health in Guatemala. Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, a young woman prepares for her quinceañera and in Panama, a housekeeper grows exasperated with her demanding employer.

In a timeless México where women are disappearing, a girl helps her dad, a tormented addict, to take care of an abandoned baseball camp where the narcos gather to play.

Hernandez had already made films in Guatemala and Mexico and this time found inspiring locations, unusual atmosphere and enthusiastic young people in Costa Rica. In this consciously unpolished film, the rebellious girls Sole and Ana open the trunk of a car in grandma’s garden and find something they’d rather immediately forget.

After meeting at a party, Luciana and Pedro... embark on a spur of the moment journey together that takes them to the forest. Asthey explore the beauty in the nature that surrounds them, they camp out under the stars, go on hikes, indulge in the passions of their encounter, and discuss their personal beliefs surrounding love, obligations, and attraction. Lensed in lush black-and-white cinematography amidst the gorgeous backdrop of the Costa Rican forest, an honest and genuine relationship story unfolds, lending a feeling of realism to their storybook romance in a refreshing and youthful way.

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, 1948. Four days before Christmas, Setico a 12-year-old boy must take a train in search of his father. A trip that will reveal the forgotten memories of this banana enclave and the murder of six political prisoners in a place known as Devil's Elbow.

In Guatemala, violence is contagious. The neighbors of Villas de La Esperanza, in fear of an eventual invasion of those infected by violence, arm themselves and patrol nights, risking their lives for the safety of their families. But battling violence with violence only spreads the contagion, and the neighbors will realise that the greatest danger is not what lurks outside their secure gated community. The real danger lies within. In Guatemala violence is contagious, and we are all infected.