In a Cuban town, a place that time forgot, we find Alex and Edith, a young couple in their 30s who nurture a relationship built on small gestures and tenderness. Milagros, an elderly woman, survives by selling peanuts and spends her days listening to the radio and reading old letters. Frank and Alain, two nine-year-old best friends, dream of emigrating to the USA to become baseball stars.
Each of the constituent stories follows Cubans who plan to leave the country, yearn to leave, or are affected by someone else’s decision to leave, capturing a sense of life on the island as constantly caught between here and there, between those who are gone and those who remain.
Tommaso Santambrogio’s debut feature offers a stunningly photographed black-and-white portrait of contemporary Cuba. He presents a remarkable film, rooted in a cinematic tradition linked to Lav Diaz, and renders the feelings of both past and present Cuba with sensuality.
"A poetic reflection on the theme of separation” — Cineuropa
“[A] sophisticated tableaux full of nostalgia, in black and white which gets straight to the heart of things." — Cineuropa
“Brilliantly captures the complexity of life in Cuba today. With striking cinematography and a remarkable cast of first-time actors, “Oceans are the Real Continents” is “[a] wistful and poetic journey sure to linger on in memory.” – InReview Online
"A poetic, poignant and beautifully constructed work that is both artistically resonant and deeply moving." - Matthew Joseph Jenner, International Cinephile Society
Following the screening, there will be a discussion with filmmaker Tommaso Santambrogio, whose distinctive work and collaborations with Werner Herzog and Lav Diaz have garnered attention.
