The Empty Classroom

Madly explores love in all its permutations in six short films from a vibrant group of filmmakers representing Japan, Argentina, the UK, the US, India, and Australia. All forms of love are on display in this anthology. And all manners of feelings expressed from jubilance to depression are done so strongly.

Déficit follows one day of crisis in the life of Cristobal (Gael Garcia Bernal), a spoilt, rich kid throwing a party for his friends at his parents' luxurious villa. A big fence and a live-in staff of servants are there to shield Cristobal from the harsher realities of life, while his younger sister Elisa (Camila Sodi), there with her own crowd, uses drugs as her chosen means of escape. There are, however, some realities that cannot be kept at bay forever, like the reason behind their parents' prolonged absence, the gradual breakdown in the villa's amenities, and Cristobal's dwindling university prospects.

Made up of 10 short films, 'Revolucion' analyzes through the eyes of the directors what is the revolution today and what it means to the young minds of Mexico.

8 shorts centered around 8 themes directed by 8 famous film directors involved and sharing their opinion on progress, on the set-backs and the challenges our planet faces today.

Cagalera and Moloteco are two teenagers from San Gregorio Atlapulco who are desperate to get out and move up and away from oppressive circumstances. When they hear of an opportunity to buy a spot in the electrician’s union, which could transform their lives, they quickly devolve into the criminal, adult underworld of Mexico City in a bid to buy their freedom.

Romina goes to Silvina's to give her a haircut. They met through an online platform that connects people offering and looking for services of all kinds.

Part of the film "8", Gael García Bernal delivers a film on universal education.

This short documentary reviews the lives and experiences of mexican and centroamerican migrants as they try to reach the US border.

A man visits a school to enroll his son, but then he pulls out a gun and robs the school from their money. The movie follows the man and is shot with an unsteady handycam.

The story follows the struggles of Arturo, a cab driver who has to find $2000 within 24 hours; his older son, Ramiro, who left home four years ago, has just phoned from Houston asking for urgent help. However, Arturo's wife Irene keeps their savings away from Arturo's reach.

Kaí is a mysterious shaman who emerges from the Rio Paraná to help a poor farmer and his daughter, who are threatened by a band of cold-blooded mercenaries hired to force them to sell their land.

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.

Architect Fabián Danubio desperately tries to find his daughter, who has inexplicably disappeared leaving no trace.

It is the golden age of gangs, and one of the darkest times for the police, who are controlled by a group of millionaire commissioners sharing in the illicit businesses of Buenos Aires.

A historical short film, which was a job for the university. It is a summary of the cinema of Lucrecia Martel, in just 2 minutes.

Chekhov in contemporary Argentina. Mecha and Gregorio are at their rundown country place near La Ciénaga with their teen children. It's hot. The adults drink constantly; Mecha cuts herself, engendering a trip to the hospital and a visit from her son José. A cousin, Tali, brings her children. The kids are on their own, sunbathing by the filthy pool, dancing in town, running in the hills with shotguns, driving cars without licenses. One of the teen girls loves Isabel, a family servant constantly accused of stealing. Mother and son, son and sisters, teen and Isabel are in each other's beds and bathrooms with a creepy intimacy. With no adults paying attention, who's at risk?

The murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar and the removal of his community from their ancestral land in Argentina.

In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.

Amalia is an adolescent girl who is caught in the throes of her emerging sexuality and her deeply held passion for her Catholic faith. These two drives mingle when the visiting Dr. Jano takes advantage of a crowd to get inappropriately close to the girl. Repulsed by him but inspired by an inner burning, Amalia decides it is her God-given mission to save the doctor from his behavior, and she begins to stalk Dr. Jano, becoming a most unusual voyeur.

In the almost two-minute film AI, which Lucrecia Martel created at the Viennale’s invitation, a single shifty eye looks out from a heavily pixelated image; a mouth is vaguely visible and declares: “I am not completely like other people.” Is AI coming to life here, entering a world that’s still foreign to it and that crackles, scratches and echoes? And how does our view of this eerie image change, knowing that the pixels are superimposed on a historical recording from 1961 that documents the anamnesis of a catatonic schizophrenic?

Documentary about the joys and sorrows of being a transvestite.

When his long-lost brother resurfaces, Jacobo, desperate to prove his life has added up to something, looks to scrounge up a wife. He turns to Marta, an employee at his sock factory, with whom he has a prickly relationship. the owner of a sock factory in Montevideo, and Marta, his employee, realize that their estranged relationship needs to change when Jacobo's long-lost brother prompting them to pose as a married couple.

Montevideo, Saturday, 7 in the morning. El Leche, Javi, and Seba have not gone to sleep yet. Tired and bored, they sit in the usual wall fence to have a beer. On a lazy summer Saturday the three boys each with their own worries—studies, work, and, of course, love.

Dissatisfied with his new life (and wife), a man tries to insinuate himself back into the home of the ex-wife and daughter he left ten years before, in this heartwarming and hilarious comedy-drama from Uruguayan director Pablo Stoll Ward (25 Watts, Whisky).

When Felipe’s ex-girlfriend breaks his heart, it feels like it’s the end of the world – and he’s not wrong. A strange zombie plague is unleashed on the paradise beach his friends have taken him to get his head in the right place. This is how the hectic pursuit for survival begins, where telling apart the living from the dead becomes the hardest part. Felipe will do whatever it takes to save his life, his friends’ lives and Ana’s life, a beautiful and problematic girl. Who would’ve guessed a zombie apocalypse would be the beginning of a new life and new love?

Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.

A young man in Uruguay has trouble expressing himself verbally. As the lead singer in a band, he interacts with the world through his music.

Two friends staying at a summer house find a strange animal in front of the house looking at them, and they discuss what to do with it.

This is the endless story about an old couple lost at the end of their last days. The Oldman seems a baby who just eats, sleeps and watches television. The Oldlady seems a mum who cooks, cleans and speaks to him. This old couple could live anywhere in the world. Their country is death. Their only world is a long wait. The Oldlady has taken control of both lives because she is in much better mental and physical conditions than him. Day after day the Oldlady plans and organizes different ways to kill themselves. But for the moment she is not shooting well. Days will keep following until a small mistake or the correct shoot end the sadness of this harsh wait.

Clemente, a moneylender of few words, is a new hope for Sofía, his single neighbor, devoted to the October worship of Our Lord of the Miracles. They're brought together over a new-born baby, fruit of Clemente's relationship with a prostitute who's nowhere to be found. While Clemente is looking for the girl's mother, Sofía cares for the baby and looks after the moneylender's house. With the arrival of these beings in his life, Clemente has the opportunity to reconsider his emotional relations with people

Roberto, a Peruvian boy in his teens, has moved to Montreal to live with his father, Bob Montoya, and his new Canadian family. While Bob tries to succeed in his new life as a small time "business man", the ties with his son will be marked by a quiet violence that seems to have followed them from their country of origin.

Among the hodge-podge of Peruvian government officials, there is a man named Constantino Zegarra. He doesn’t fit anywhere and looks down on his colleagues because he has never succumbed to an act of corruption and, every time he has had the opportunity to do so, he has made an effort to impede it. Over his two decades as a government official he has cultivated purity - the fuel for his soul. Now forty, this solitary soldier is a married man and father to a teenage girl who never stops reading and thinks her father is wrong. He doesn’t care what his wife and daughter think. Constantino has taken his principles to the extreme in order to prove to himself that he isnot like his father, a man who ended his days in poverty because of corruption. One morning, Constantino leaves his house and a stray bullet goes through his throat. He doesn’t die but becomes mute. After his recovery, the only thing of which he is certain is that someone from his office tried to kill him.

This is the endless story about an old couple lost at the end of their last days. The Oldman seems a baby who just eats, sleeps and watches television. The Oldlady seems a mum who cooks, cleans and speaks to him. This old couple could live anywhere in the world. Their country is death. Their only world is a long wait. The Oldlady has taken control of both lives because she is in much better mental and physical conditions than him. Day after day the Oldlady plans and organizes different ways to kill themselves. But for the moment she is not shooting well. Days will keep following until a small mistake or the correct shoot end the sadness of this harsh wait.

Renzo Collazos has been a recognized journalist for the political section of the newspaper El Comercio for a year. One morning, the website editor asks him to manage a blog dedicated to youth and write weekly about his pale social-sentimental-sexual life. Collazos accepts, convinced that he has nothing important to tell: he has no partner; he still lives with his mother; in his spare time he reads, writes poetry, masturbates, and is fed up with the fact that his closest friends have married (because he also wanted to marry). Unexpectedly, the Wanted Girlfriend blog becomes a success as Renzo writes about his cynical love dilemmas, from the marriage of his ex-girlfriend to the failed night raids on Friday and Saturday, and he gains popularity. That fame makes him a more selfish, more vain, more stupid guy who ends up sabotaging his relationships. He finds a girlfriend, but she decides to end things and his world falls apart again. Realizing what he has become, he decides to change.

Clemente, a moneylender of few words, is a new hope for Sofía, his single neighbor, devoted to the October worship of Our Lord of the Miracles. They're brought together over a new-born baby, fruit of Clemente's relationship with a prostitute who's nowhere to be found. While Clemente is looking for the girl's mother, Sofía cares for the baby and looks after the moneylender's house. With the arrival of these beings in his life, Clemente has the opportunity to reconsider his emotional relations with people

Roberto, a Peruvian boy in his teens, has moved to Montreal to live with his father, Bob Montoya, and his new Canadian family. While Bob tries to succeed in his new life as a small time "business man", the ties with his son will be marked by a quiet violence that seems to have followed them from their country of origin.

Among the hodge-podge of Peruvian government officials, there is a man named Constantino Zegarra. He doesn’t fit anywhere and looks down on his colleagues because he has never succumbed to an act of corruption and, every time he has had the opportunity to do so, he has made an effort to impede it. Over his two decades as a government official he has cultivated purity - the fuel for his soul. Now forty, this solitary soldier is a married man and father to a teenage girl who never stops reading and thinks her father is wrong. He doesn’t care what his wife and daughter think. Constantino has taken his principles to the extreme in order to prove to himself that he isnot like his father, a man who ended his days in poverty because of corruption. One morning, Constantino leaves his house and a stray bullet goes through his throat. He doesn’t die but becomes mute. After his recovery, the only thing of which he is certain is that someone from his office tried to kill him.

A young woman experiences the worst life has to over in this depressing but worthwhile Colombian drama tinged with a hint of magical realism. Paola Baldion plays Marina, a withdrawn teenager whose abusive grand-dad houses her in a dilapidated shed. When the old fart pops his clogs, Marina passes into the care of cousin Jairo (Julian Roman), a cheesecake photographer who "hires" her to help him with his gear, and the two end up taking an episodic road trip as they travel to reclaim grandpa's legacy. Unpleasant flashbacks to Marina's tragic childhood ensue. Yep, the good times never end in this one! Known in English as Portraits in a Sea of Lies, this meditation on the 50-year long Colombian civil war - as seen through the grueling experiences of our heroine - won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 14th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival.

Carmen and Alfredo live a happy, quiet life in the suburbs surrounded by friends and family. After Alfredo receives a promotion, the two move away to Mexico City where they immediately feel the social pressure of being overweight in a bustling metropolis full of beautiful people. Taking the initiative, Carmen convinces her husband to join her in losing weight, but their relationship is put to the test when Alfredo’s program yields far better results than Carmen’s. From award-winning director Marianna Chenillo comes a touching comedy about how true beauty comes from the inside and paradise is closer to home than you might think.

Made up of 10 short films, 'Revolucion' analyzes through the eyes of the directors what is the revolution today and what it means to the young minds of Mexico.

In 2012, Charly leaves Nicolás minutes before getting married and moves to another country. Heartbroken, he writes to her a letter where predicts an unhappy life of complete solitude. Ten years later, fate brings them together again at the wedding of Rocío, her best friend, and Diego, her brother, where they will face that their love story is not over yet.

Jose learns that Nora, the woman he was married to for 30 years and from whom divorced, has committed suicide. The rabbi explains Joseph that due to the celebrations this time of the year, if Nora is not buried that same day, they should wait at least 5 days for the funeral. Nora had planned before his death, a Machiavellian plan in order that Joseph was the one who has to take care of his funeral. But Nora forgot a small detail, a mysterious photograph stored under her bed, that will remind Joseph that the greatest love stories, sometimes are hidden in the smallest places.

Tales of Two Who Dreamt is set in a housing block in Toronto and pivots on representation and self-representation. Here, a Roma family rehearses the stories of their past for the upcoming hearing on their residency status.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

When Gabino's father returns home after a long absence, the two men awkwardly attempt to re-establish a relationship; but Gabino and his mother quickly tire of this man who has become a stranger to them and decide to kick him out, before realizing that he has already left. Gabino eventually tracks his father down and spends time with him in his rundown apartment, trying to figure out if there is any possibility for the two of them to ever truly communicate. Though Greatest Hits continues Pereda's exploration of his perennial themes of absence, masculinity and the difficulty of maintaining a family, it opens up a whole new set of aesthetic questions through a bold formal gambit: halfway through, the entire narrative reboots and starts from scratch with another actor playing one of the key characters, leading to different iterations of events already witnessed.

The Palace is a documentary that follows the everyday life of seventeen women who live together, sharing a large house for emotional and financial reasons. They help each other to train for various jobs. Most become nannies, domestic workers and private nurses for elderly patients.

Vicente (Gabino Rodríguez) is a young farmer in a rural village who scrapes by while taking care of his ill grandmother. Several of Vicente’s uncles intend to their ailing mother’s land without her knowledge. Vicente seeks help from the municipal president who, between shooting hoops on a desolate court, tells him that if he wants justice, he must head to the capital to meet with government officials. Although he hasn’t seen her since he was a child, Vicente sets off in search of his mother, who works as a maid in maze-like Mexico City. With the help of his mother’s employer, a sophisticated middle-aged woman, he finds the government offices where he presents his case. His situation isn’t easily resolved, especially since he does not have the deed to his grandmother’s plot of land, and Vicente finds the complexities of the legal system to be completely overwhelming.

An itinerant mover works from the streets of Mexico City with his partner and lives with his beleaguered mother. A heightened tension within the home – by the absent older brother and unmentioned father. Gabino's casual pursuit of a career is interrupted by a series of intense and almost satirically telenovela-esque domestic vignettes.

A series of auditions is taking place in a museum-like living room. Various men improvise or deliver prepared lines, rehearse gestures and slogans, aim guns, and collapse as if mortally wounded. The theme of revolution is repeatedly invoked. In between, there are scenes of a desert landscape. Three men seeking to join the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the last century have lost their way. Conflicts smolder among them, water is running low, and mutual mistrust is beginning to take hold. Placing the reenactment of a possible historical event alongside the preparations for it serves to underline the theatricality of every cinematic account of history. Moreover, on a kind of playful meta-meta-level, the scenes in which the actors feel their way through set pieces from a Beatles song or standard battle slogans allow the viewer to witness the simultaneous construction and deconstruction of a collective myth of revolution.

Summer of Goliath is a documentary/fiction hybrid that narrates various stories of the people of the town of Huilotepec in rural Mexico. Teresa's husband has disappeared and she believes he has left her for another woman. Gabino, her son, is a soldier who searches cars at the side of a country road, where very few cars pass by. He hopes one day him and Alberto, his soldier partner, will get machine guns to further intimidate the people driving by. Amalio, Nico, and Oscar are three brothers whose stories we learn through a series of interviews and reenactments. Their father left them many years ago, and their mother can barely support them. Oscar has gained the nickname Goliath after the mysterious death of his girlfriend.

Carefully shot in black and white, All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence is a meditation on the filming of a strange play: a fascinating monologue by actress, director, performance artist and political activist Jesusa Rodriguez of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz’s poem First I Dream.

Enigmatic and deceptively playful in tone, this film from Gabino Rodríguez, in collaboration with Nicolás Pereda, boldly transforms mundane, realist observations at a rural Mexican schoolhouse into fantasy and a sly comment on childhood, rituals, and race.

A woman’s body on a bed. The camera follows her silhouette and slides out of the window to frame an urban landscape on the water’s edge. The sky and the sea share the horizon. A breath of freedom emerges from the images, like a dream in the shade of summer. A short effort made as part of the Pompeu Fabra film school, in Barcelona.

A farmer marries a neighbour’s daughter. When she falls ill, the man welcomes the woman’s sister into his home, forming an unusual family. They can’t have children. They adopt one, who is now married and has his own children. They all live together. A humanist film, against exclusion. In favour of sharing.

An arid landscape in which various people move around: a girl walks along holding a goldfish in a glass of water, children have fun with an empty bath tub, people at their window observe what’s happening. And finally, rain. Drought is treated with realism and oneirism in the filmmaker’s first work, made when she was still a film student.

A woman is recruited to a prison controlled by organized crime while another woman searches for her missing daughter. Through images that submerges us in a journey from north to south Mexico, both testimonies collide and take us to the center of a storm: a country where violence has taken control of our lives, our desires and our dreams.

Years after the Salvadoran military destroyed the village of Cinquera in that country’s civil war, survivors have returned to rebuild their community. Soulful, beautifully rendered, this amazing debut is an evocative testament to place, memory and the power of life to rebound from tragedy.

In a mountain town, where corn and poppies grow the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground to escape the threat of being stolen. Ana and her two best friends grow up together, affirming the bonds of their friendship and discovering what it means to be women in a rural town marked by violence. Their mothers train them to flee death, to escape those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. They create their own impenetrable universe, but one day one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hiding place in time.

Lulú wakes up amidst the silence of a house that has been emptied. Five years ago her eight-year-old son, Brandon, and her husband disappeared. The absence they left behind now makes her live in a limbo that is also inhabited by desire, hope and the fight to find them alive.

Dreams, voices that recount the violence in El Salvador, fights between gangs, mourning for the dead. And a feeling of fear that resonates in the words. On screen are girls, shown in the course of their daily lives, people who work, the details of their existence. A film that points at the deep disease of a society.

Porto Alegre, 5 October 1984, front page of a newspaper: "Extreme left-wing activist holds up the home of an ex-consul of Paraguay, then commits suicide". The extreme left-wing activist was the director's father. The ex-consul was an ex-nazi whose past her father was investigating.

Teenager Joana feeds her soul with literature and rock. In 1979, when amnesty is granted in Brazil, she's forced to move with her family from Paris back to the country she barely remembers. Back in the city she was born in, and where her father was forcedly disappeared, she recovers pieces of memory from a fragmented childhood in Rio de Janeiro. Not everything is real, not everything is imagination. And as she remembers, Joana must write her own story in the present tense.

Camilla, an 8-year-old girl, sees a cardboard box fall from a "donkey without a tail" and tries to return it to its owner - a paper taster. The man gives her the old box. Upon arriving home, Camila finds a camera in the box - and then begins her adventure.