Cuban cinema, guest of honor at the Cinélatino festival in Toulouse

Nearly 150 films will be screened, including twelve fiction films, seven documentaries and sixteen short films in competition.

The 36th edition of Cinélatino, one of the main Latin American film festivals in Europe, is honoring the diversity of works by Cuban filmmakers in exile this year in Toulouse, its organizers announced on Thursday.

This year the festival has more than 40 Latin American guests, added Marion Gautreau, vice-president of the organizing association. Screenings for young people, debates and activities, including tango lessons or concerts, are also on the program.

The documentary “Llamadas desde Moscú“

“These poetic and free works of the diaspora (which have) suffered from the blockade”established by the United States against Cuba in 1962, will be celebrated from March 15 to 24 in Toulouse and the surrounding area, explained Eva Morsch Kihn, festival programming coordinator.

Beyond the feature films selected for the various awards, a documentary which “reflects the genius of Cuban director Landrian” and shot by Ernesto Daranas Serrano will be broadcast alongside “short films and some films from the island”she clarified.

The public will be able to discover for the first time in France the documentary Llamadas from Moscú [Appels depuis Moscou] by director Luis Alejandro Yero, who tells the daily life of Cuban exiles in the Russian capital since the start of the war in Ukraine two years ago.

Cinélatino will also turn to Mexico, shining the spotlight on actress Teresa Sanchez and five of the twenty films in which she starred. It will also offer a journey through the fantastic cinema of this country, going from 1957 with The Vampire’s Prey from Fernando Méndez to 2022 with Huesera by Michelle Garza Cervera.