Discoveries from Uruguay World Cinema

A pianist slowly becomes deaf.

Dos Orientales is a musical documentary about the jazz fusion duo Hugo Fattoruso and Tomohiro Yahiro. The film invites you to dive into the creative world of these two experienced musicians who come from very distant countries: Uruguay and Japan. Twined by their passion and their charisma, they have been sharing routes and scores around the world since 1997 until today. Dos Orientales is a journey to the heart of cultural and musical differences that, rather than separating, unite and build bridges.

Two strangers meet each other and improvise a first date

A blend of brutal carnage and introspective poetry, this story follows a sadistic yet empathetic killer who tries to escape his fate but remains trapped. It blurs the lines between good and evil, offering a new take on heroism and revenge, showing its therapeutic and strangely altruistic side.

A car aficionado, filmmaker Paulo Carneiro travels 2000 kilometres to meet car enthusiasts of the Portuguese community in exile. In a pop and urban universe, Périphérique Nord explores this shared passion and the freedom it provides for these exiled persons who seem to finally find (once again) a territory of their own.

A mother struggles to raise her daughter all by herself, and due to the economic difficulties decides to rob multiple finance houses, fooling her victims with the handle of her umbrella that she make them think is a real revolver.

A group of teenagers gather one night and begin telling legends about witches from different countries, but along the way, something unexpected happens that will change their lives forever.

A law student mother races against time to find her recently missing daughter

One morning, a girl wakes up and it seems she can make time stop with her eyes.

Clara, who was only thirteen years old, had to go through an experience that caused cracks within her; the same refraction will enable her to see with different eyes.

The work of the coffee vendors is a fundamental part of the Mercado Modelo, the main center of commerce and storage of food in Montevideo. Following its move to the outskirts of the city, the Market made headlines for several months. However, these workers did not appear in any media reports. This documentary short seeks to give them a space and a voice so we can listen to the valuable things they have to say.

The Marconi neighborhood is considered by the press and police as one of the most dangerous in Uruguay. Anibal González (Don Cony) and his brother Christian González (Kitty), were born and raised in the neighborhood. Today they try to survive while writing songs of denunciation about the reality they have to live. Los Olvidados begins with archival footage from 2012 in which a young man from Marconi is killed by police, and ends in 2016 with the death of another young man in similar circumstances. The film shows the neighborhood through Don Cony and Kitty in the interim between these two police events.

After being fired from his job, a psychologist and frustrated songwriter begins his career as an imitator of Latino superstar Luis Miguel, gaining local fame while singing someone else's songs as he questions who he wants to be.

Irene, a theater enthusiast and devoted admirer of artist Paula Rego, moves between a yearning to know and the fear of what she might uncover. Through Rego’s haunting work, she finds a doorway into her father’s past. In an imagined dialogue with the dead, she seeks out Emilio — a retired soldier she suspects may have carried the weight of unspeakable acts.

Uruguayan photographer Pedro Lombardi goes back to his home country to explore Tango with his camera

Marosa di Giorgio Medici (Salto, 1932 - Montevideo, 2004), created an odd, overwhelming poetic, with a superlative imagination. Born in the department of Salto, she lived her childhood in the orchards of her grandparents, the Medici, where she treasured memories that later, already in Montevideo, she would translate into one of the most exquisite works of national and Latin American literature. In her lyrics, angels and demons coexist within a rural landscape, where the different elements of nature are exalted and disturbed with a unique poetic flight. She was also an extraordinary and absolutely authentic character. Her work, which has received numerous awards, has been translated into English, French, Portuguese and Italian. In The Wild Papers (with various editions) her very unique poetry is gathered.

The water war causes the levels of alcohol consumption to rise as a daily use. People live absolutely drunk and wait for moments of happiness to sober up. Luna wants to go to a party, and her friend gets her water so she can live a real night.

This is a documentary about the Uruguayan boxer Alfredo Evangelista, who at height of his career even fought against Mohammad Ali. A considerable part of the film is a long interview with him in Carabanchel prison in Madrid. Alfredo, one of Uruguay's last sporting legends, tells his story for the camera. He talks about his life and his career in sport, and he reflects bitterly and lucidly about the mistakes he has made and his situation today.

Nicolás, a frustrated actor who spends his free time fixing things he finds in the trash, tries to lead a quiet life in his apartment building. His neighbor Clara, a kind and reserved schoolteacher, also follows her routine, until a mysterious painting begins to alter the atmosphere around them. What initially seems like a simple curiosity gradually affects both their moods and perceptions, giving rise to increasingly strange situations.

A father and daughter wait. Accompanied only by the night, a battered pickup truck, and the uncertainty of waiting for something without knowing when it will arrive, they pass the time as the city and its inhabitants gradually intrude upon their vigil.

In mid-2002, Uruguayan banks had lost half of their deposits. Unemployment, inflation, and devaluation were growing rapidly. Some argued that President Jorge Batlle should step aside. This is the story of a man who reached the Presidency at the age of 72, after his fifth attempt, only to face the worst economic crisis in Uruguay's history. He was the heir to a political dynasty, with a unique style that managed to avoid default amidst the crisis.

Short film made as the final project of the Molino de Pérez film workshop for adolescents, supported by the Intendancy of Montevideo. We glimpse the life of a lonesome woman who, chained to her routine, is slowly driven mad by the sound of creaks from a neighbouring house. Let's accompany her on this slow walk through a monotonous existence.

En marcha, by Alberto Miller, made c. 1966. During the second half of the 1960s, the Unión de Trabajadores Azucareros de Artigas (UTAA) carried out a series of marches from the north of the country to Montevideo, demanding better living conditions for its workers. These mobilizations took place in a context of economic crisis in the country and growing political and social conflict. Filmmakers Mario Handler, Alberto Miller and Marcos Banchero recorded some of these mobilizations at the time, contributing to the visibility of this sector of society, whose conditions of exploitation had been unknown to the capital's gaze until then.

Helena works alone as a house sitter of a large residence far away from the city. A visit is scheduled, but the guest arrives earlier than estimated.

Juana is twelve years old, she smokes and says she is pregnant. In the torpor of an immutable end of summer, she wanders between absence and disagreement with the adult world.

An entomophobic filmmaker faces her fears through a series of expeditions and encounters with a Hungarian neurologist obsessed with beetles. Curious about what his passion for insects can teach her, director Mariana Castiñeiras perfectly pins the thrill of discovery. Why do desire and fear fade once conquered? How do collecting and psychology drive the relationship between documentarian and subject?

The fight between the boxers Pascual Pérez and Óscar Suárez and the match between the soccer teams of Argentina and Uruguay for the Atlantic Cup.

More than a film about football, this documentary is the portrait of a passion. Through several testimonies, what is shown is the feeling of the fan of Peñarol and what he is capable of doing for the team of his loves. From the largest flag in the world to the most spectacular receptions, including tattoos, anecdotes, promises and much more.

Four women work together to create a play while they talk about their experiences with motherhood.

It rains constantly. Amidst the repetition of images and sounds, Joaquín, forced to spend a summer week locked in his room, films himself.

Film by Boris Cristoff.

Mario leaves his town, grieved by the death of his father. He ventures to reestablish his life in the city, prompted by a job proposal. However, he must face his loneliness.

A musical road movie that takes us on a trip through South America with bands such as Él mató a un policía motorizado, Mundaka, Niños del Cerro and Carmen Sandiego. With a variety of formats that trace a plexus of dissimilar experiences, the film finds in self-management and companionship the common story of independent rock.

A story of five voices passionate about the legendary national sport, characters who know a reality that the vast majority of fans are unaware of. Those who live the joys and sorrows in their football clubs on a daily basis. There is something that unifies all of them: the passion for their work and their team.

Carmen, a lonely and structured woman, meets the young Malena at the library where she works. The two develop a growing bond, shaking up Carmen's life, who'll be increasingly willing to go to greater lengths to preserve it.

Esteban and Virginia, a couple trapped between reality and illusion, embark on a journey that will change their lives. Esteban searches for a magic formula in an actress: the secret of shrewdness? Virginia faces an identity crisis. The seek for solutions tears the couple apart and leads them down divergent paths; Esteban pursues impossible answers while Virginia decides to travel to China in search of herself.

Silvio Bertolini can't collect his pension because he's presumed dead. Entangled in Montevideo's bureaucratic system, he'll do everything he can to prove he's alive.

Mario Benedetti and Luz López met when they were teenagers, he became a writer and she became a public servant. Together they shared life, exile, failures, success, friends and love. Sixty years and eighty books later, Luz suffers from Alzheimer's, forgets all of her past, and finally she forgets Mario just before she died. The film reconstructs this memory with an eye set on the author and the love that bound them together.

A delinquent from the suburbs of Montevideo, fond of the guitar and singing, plans, thanks to the help of a journalist, to appear at a rock festival. The police, who have found out about his plans, hope to catch him.

Aldo, an exuberant 80-year-old man, and Gabriella, his introverted wife for the better part of five decades, candidly reflect on the deterioration of their marriage, much of which Aldo has captured on video. Watching these evocative home movies, looking through photos and hearing the couple's stories, we are transported through the glorious and dreamy moments of a young, beautiful couple in love. But as the façade of those picture-perfect moments fades away, Aldo and Gabriella are forced to ruminate on the mistakes they've made and the people they no longer are. Adriana Loeff and Claudia Abend have crafted a heartfelt film about the power of love, the universality of heartbreak, and an inescapable truth: We all will grow old with less-than-perfect grace.

Years passed, and China Zorrilla's artistic children never met again. Her death closed an era. What remains in our memory is the jazz of her inventions and the legacy of an artist who forged new paths, amidst both delusions and prohibitions.

In a dystopian future, Lucía, a young philosophy student, secludes herself in her grandparents' summer house. Her solitude is only hindered by the ‘Sistema Único de Salud’, which summons her for a new compulsory vaccination that she does not want to comply with, and she has only five days to solve the problem. Time moves forward between memories and encounters that Lucía has with her partner, her best friend and an unexpected visitor. In a poetic key, the film proposes a reflection on individual freedom and freedom of thought as the last trench in the face of a coercive system.

"in a few minutes we are presented with the whole story of civilization... imaginative, original but most of all - witty" –Cracow Film Festival

Documentary short film by Mario Handler about the city of Prague as part of an internship to study film in Europe.

Are Uruguay and Belgium children of the same unrecognized father? What was the role of Irish diplomat Lord John Ponsonby in the founding of two nation-states that seemingly have nothing in common? Welcome to Ponsonbyland: an invitation to think about nationalities and identities from a different perspective.

During the military dictatorship, Mariana and her husband turn to the spiritualist Joaquín hoping he can help them uncover the truth behind her sister’s disappearance.

Olivia, an eight-year-old girl at a children's birthday party, comes across a television. Through the news she discovers a reality very different from her own. Two contemporary worlds seem incompatible, although their protagonists may be the same.

Short autobiographical story.

Dina and Alberto are two young Uruguayans who are getting married to fulfill the Jewish family mandate and thus continue the traditions that their families have inherited and maintained for centuries. Family pressure and the rapid transition to adult life will make these two young people rethink their dreams and their freedom in the Montevideo setting of the 90s.

On a planet headed for climate collapse, where humanity pursues a predatory model of development and consumption, the philosophy of former Uruguayan President Pepe Mujica raises an alarm in all of us. Pepe’s dream is to leave a better planet for future generations. However, time is running out and there is no way back.