ENTRE LA NOSTALGIA Y LA ESPERANZA. UNA MIRADA A LA JUSTICIA DE GUATEMALA EN EL EXILIO; SINFRONTERAS; LA RAÍZ DEL ALBA; EL REINADO DE ANTOINE

Program:

BETWEEN NOSTALGIA AND HOPE: A LOOK AT GUATEMALA’S JUSTICE SYSTEM IN EXILE
Sergi Tarín, Spain / Guatemala, 2026, short documentary
WRITTEN BY, CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sergi Tarín | EDITING: Esther Albert and Sergi Tarín | SOUND, MUSIC: Pixabay | FEATURING: Gloria Porras, Eva Sosa, Alfredo Tejeda, Pablo Barrios, Luis Gaitán, Augusto Jordan, Paola Escobar de Rosales, Miguel Ángel Gálvez
29 min | Color, Spanish with English subtitles, DCP

Since 2019, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and human rights defenders in Guatemala who have taken a stand against corruption and impunity have faced increasing political persecution and criminal prosecution. Many have been forced out of their positions or driven into exile. What began as a commitment to the rule of law has resulted in the loss of their professional livelihoods, their homes, and, often, their proximity to family and friends.
In late 2025, a group of these legal professionals gathers in Castelló, Spain. They discuss life in exile, what they were forced to leave behind, and the possibility of one day returning to Guatemala—to a country where an independent judiciary and the rule of law might once again be possible.
This meeting gives rise to a personal portrait of home and uprootedness, of loss and hope. The voices of those in exile speak of a longing for Guatemala, of continuing the fight from afar, and of what a potential return might look like. A documentary film about individuals who were compelled to leave their country in order to uphold the very values ​​they sought to defend there. SIN FRONTERAS
Wainer Méndez Solano, Costa Rica, 2025, short documentary
SCREENPLAY, CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITING Wainer Méndez | SOUND Carlos Guadamuz Vargas | MUSIC Frank Noguera | FEATURING Jacqueline Rúiz, Ever Ávalos, Nerys
28 min | Color, Spanish with English subtitles, DCP

Three Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica. Three stories about migration, resilience, and the attempt to build a new life. They did not leave their homeland out of a sense of adventure, but out of necessity—carrying with them the hope for a better future.
The documentary follows them through their daily lives: at work, at home, and in their encounters with a society where they are not always welcome. Beyond the challenges of arriving in a new place, it highlights the relationships that provide them with support—mutual aid, small gestures of solidarity, and the friendships that blossom when people who were once strangers cross paths.
*Sin Fronteras* tells the stories of individuals who are defined by more than just their experience of migration: it speaks of their memories, their dreams, and their desire to build a future without having to leave their origins behind.


LA RAÍZ DEL ALBA
Diego Barquero Babuglia, Cuba, 2025, short documentary
SCREENPLAY Aicüna Gómez | CINEMATOGRAPHY Danúzia Chavez | EDITING Rocío Salima | SOUND Molé Balstar | FEATURING Jesús Martínez
11 min | Color, Spanish with English subtitles, DCP

In a small house in San Antonio de los Baños, 75-year-old Jesús tends to his aquatic garden every morning. The plants in the water shape his daily routine and provide him with a sense of stability. Yet, the silence in the house also speaks of what is missing: his children have emigrated, in search of better opportunities. Left behind are an increasingly empty house and a man clinging to his familiar surroundings.

Amidst aquatic plants and memories, a portrait unfolds of a person whose life is defined by the absence of those closest to him. *La Raíz del Alba* is a quiet, poignant film about aging, loneliness, and the question of what sustains us when the world we know begins to change.


EL REINADO DE ANTOINE
José Luis Jiménez Gómez, Cuba / Dominican Republic, 2024, short documentary
SCREENPLAY: José Luis Jiménez | CINEMATOGRAPHY: Isaac Fabricio | EDITING: Verónica Díaz | SOUND: Nabil Severo | FEATURING: Vismán Pacheco Linares, Alejandro Pacheco Linares, Vismán Pacheco Rodríguez
18 min | Color, Spanish with English subtitles, DCP

In a small town in Cuba lives Visman, a boy who constructs an alternative world within his imagination. While caring for his disabled father on his own, he works on his epic project, *El Reinado de Antoine*, striving to bring his story to life. For him, imagination serves as an escape from a daily existence marked by hardship, a lack of prospects, and the responsibility of looking after his father.
As Visman delves deeper into his narrative, the lines between reality and fiction begin to blur. What initially appears to be an escape from everyday life evolves into a world of his own—one in which he carves out a sense of agency and a future.
*El Reinado de Antoine* is an intimate portrait of coming of age under challenging circumstances, the power of the imagination, and the fragility of familial bonds. It is a film about the stories we invent in order to endure reality.