Discoveries from Uruguay World Cinema

A peaceful trip turns into a nightmare when a man is haunted by his past in a paradise destination.

The film "Estoy por casarme" (1991), directed by Manuel Lamas, is a romantic comedy set in the resort town of Piriápolis. The plot revolves around the comical trials and tribulations of a couple preparing for their wedding, encountering typical comedic mishaps and misunderstandings associated with nuptial preparations. The movie features performances by Blanca Giménez and Vittorio Maganza, who play the engaged couple, offering a light and entertaining look at the dilemmas and dynamics of a relationship on the verge of marriage.

Ruben, a street vendor, and Lila, a domestic worker, are a poor Montevidean couple. One day, during the carnival season, they win the lottery, and start believing in the possibility of living with dignity.

Marcha de los Cañeros, by Marcos Banchero, made in 1968 as part of the Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo. 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.

A kid plays a football game on his computer, while a group of kids play football in real life through the window.

An investigator search for his kidnapped daughter

After a long time without leaving her house, Valentina will meet her friends again… Even if it’s the last thing she does.

Life and paintings of the Uruguayan artist during his American period in New York.

Marina (50) and Solaris (50) discuss about opening their relationship in a cafe. There they meet Tami (30), Marinas lover, who reveals to Solaris that Marina invited her to discuss the matter. Finally, Solaris gets fed up with the relationship and teleports to her planet.

Nieves is my oldest neighbor, in every way. She has just turned 90 and for a long time we have lived next to each other, balcony to balcony, in the Old City of Montevideo. I thought I knew her. During the confinement of 2020, filming her with my cell phone and trying to keep a distance of two meters, I discovered a woman undone in light and blooming in stars.

Satire to common police films at the time. The story, nimbly narrated, revolves around the figure of its popular interpreter, the radio comedian of those years Juan Carlos Mareco.

Evocation of the historical feat of the same name, with scenes filmed in the natural settings of Playa de la Agraciada. Los Treinta y Tres Orientales is the name by which the men led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja are historically known. In 1825, they launched an insurrection to recover the independence of the Eastern Province.

Perhaps the first experimental color film made in Uruguay, Color was the work of a pioneering woman filmmaker, still a teenager at the time of the film's completion. Millán had a number of vérité shorts under her belt by this point, but none in such gorgeous color.

A couple of young parents try out an alternative therapy that consists of arguing violently while playing bumper cars in Parque Rodó.

In the east of Uruguay there is a little-known region of vast wetlands in a beautiful natural setting which is a sanctuary for thousands of species of flora and fauna. Although it is officially protected, it is under threat from rice producers who are draining parts of the area.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the future of the Cine Universitario del Uruguay. A director abandons his documentary due to safety concerns. Drawing on the techniques of the audiovisual essay, the short film concludes with the reopening of theaters under restrictions and the hope of overcoming the crisis.

Alberto is a son, father, and grandfather who, upon reaching adulthood, asks questions he was never able to ask his own father and for which he can no longer obtain answers. Along with his brother Fabián and sister Lilián, he embarks on a journey to Poland in search of the hometown of his father, a Jewish immigrant who emigrated as a teenager, escaping the imminent war and leaving part of his family behind. Tal vez nos volvamos a encontrar is a journey that reunites three siblings who lived their lives apart and out of step.

Meche goes to visit her childhood friend, Nati. On the way, she almost bumps into a mysterious figure. When she arrives, she finds the house in disarray and her friend's behaviour disturbing. The appearance of the strange neighbour Benjamin increases the tension. Not everyone is who they say they are.

A grandson delves into his past to rescue the memory of his grandfather, a prolific painter from Mercedes. Much of his work is still in his home studio, isolated by a garden. After a storm knocks down trees and plants, the family gathers and inventories the work, initiating a process that culminates in the painter's first public exhibition, almost ten years after his death.

Who we are, who we were, and who we will be are all part of our construction. A decision, a search for experiences, a new place without forgetting our origin. The encounter with the past will awaken sorrows and joys, memories of friendships that leave an everlasting mark. Through music, everything blossoms on the stage of a life creating.

On rural wage earners in Uruguay

A little pigeon looks at the sky and begins to fly towards its most important journey.

In Palmares de la Coronilla (Uruguay), Nancy fights to promote her artisanal fishing enterprise that provides work for 30 families.

In 1988, the indebtedness of the land adjudicators of the National Colonization Institute faced a controversial refinancing law that made their subsistence unfeasible. The settlers envisioned an opaque future in which the depopulation of the campaign was going to worsen with more emigration and with the disappearance of more rural establishments.

A lively neighbourhood learns not to take water for granted.

Federico faces his in-laws for the first time and what seemed like an ordinary dinner will end in ways he never imagined.

A trip across various parts of the world and of other times to understand my ideologic heritage and what to do with it. Opera Prima is my first look at the world that becomes a mirror in which to recognize myself.

Lejos De Los Focos is a story of a particular moment in the life of No Te Va Gustar that at the same time is part of a very complex and unique year for everyone. It accurately and honestly describes the details and processes of the record that saved them as a band, reunited them as a family, and gave them hope to put a concert tour back together and play live.

The story of a young man who lives with his single dad and finds out his mother is a prostitute.

Using Super 8 footage, the director revisits a childhood trip to Asia, where his father’s business partner documented his family. Haunted by memories of a night in a Bangkok hotel, he grapples with fragmented memories, trauma, and the power of forgetting.

What feeds us? Who feeds us? Juan and Olga produce tomatoes, cheese, meat and peppers; their loving work brings us closer to the unity of the circle of life. Chacra contemplates this cycle through a dazzling visual and sound poetry, questioning the place we human beings occupy in the culture of farming, which is irremediably dying out.

Looking to feel something, Raquel, decides to sneak out of her grandmother's house and crash a costume party in the building across the street.

An anti-extractivist autobiography. A moving photo album from my childhood in the south.

A mother's monologue as her daughter inhabits spaces from the bucolic countryside to the burdening city cement.

At 88 years old, my grandfather Fernando suggested that we make a film together. His proposal comes when I tell him I'm moving out of his house. So we started filming, me with my camera and he with his. Although we have lived together for more than 20 years, it is through the camera that we see each other like never before. That Breath is an intimate record of our bond, love and loss, in search of understanding what it means to be alive.

Forty million people and countless species of flora and fauna depend on the rivers of the Rio de la Plata basin. But there is a development initiative, the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway Project, which aims to change the natural courses of these rivers and build a “Super Highway River” for the transport of grain and raw materials. If this project is implemented, what will the consequences be for society and for the environment?

An 11-year-old street boy, Obdulio, who sells newspapers for a living but cannot read or write, finds a magical "Maestro" in the night watchman of the newspaper's office. Obdulio's charismatic mentor not only introduces him to the world of literacy but also teaches him the real meaning of life through the lyrics of the "Murgas" [Carnival Pierrots] during the magical nights of the irreverent and provocative Uruguayan Carnival.

Photo montage of a romance.

In an abandoned pupper workshop, living creatures made out of scrap rehearse Hamlet while they wait for their creator. When they get to "to be or not to be", they start questioning their own existence.

This film aims to warn, ironically, about the potential “pitfalls” of seduction and deception, without any pejorative intent.

Simon, a 20-year-old boy is forced to overcome a trauma with the death of a relative. An evening that is supposed to bring light on a gray day, will reveal a truth that could put their family legacy at risk.

the story of women who reflect on how to break an invisible and imperceptible limit in an audiovisual industry with a patriarchal construction base and origin. Their voices reveal a silent story about what is not talked about in the mass media that feed this conservative patriarchal facet of the sector.

A brief incursion to the forbidden place of the collective unconscious.

A film by Ricardo Romero Curbelo, produced by Cimarrón, is one of the few films made in Uruguay with historical recreation and in rural areas. This drama tells the story of the last oriental matrero and his adventures, love affairs and fights with a facón, between horses and grocery stores.

Documentary about uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti. Different people talk about him and his work.

A film director and his actress, on a shared personal quest, wonder what connects them while making their new film, which deals with the life of whales.

Uruguayan murga Mi Vieja Mula builds upon the character of the payaso vinagre, an old murguista grappling with the fact that he is now outdated.

Rodolfo returned to Uruguay to study money laundering. He met his cousin Sonia at a Sunday lunch and they agreed to get together. However, evil lurks.

An employee that spends his time filing briefs is surprised by a blank sheet of paper which will bring him different opportunities to make changes.

I receive discarded footage from a documentary that never was. I review various documents related to the coup d’état in Uruguay. I observe how the bodies of lesbians and transvestites from that time are represented. I become obsessed with amethyst, a stone extracted from the north of Uruguay, displayed in a European natural history museum. All the files are united by one thing in common: cataloging.

Vilma wants to say goodbye to her breast.

A boy sitting on the beach begins to doubt the world around him and falls more and more into an endless derealization.