Festival 2023

Nine years, nine documentaries, nine fiction films. Nine years of Latin American cinema in Stockholm. Nine years in which we have shared the love of cinema with a loyal audience that has made the festival its meeting point. Nine years in which we have followed with excitement a notable growth in the distribution of Latin American cinema in Sweden. The nine films included in our online program this year are evidence of the interest of distributors and the Swedish audience in the cinema of our region.

During these nine years, we have followed important political changes in the region, such as the approval of abortion in Argentina, the constitutional change in Chile, the end of Bolsonarism, and the return of Lula to the presidency in Brazil. All these processes remind us that not all past times were better, but that the present is not necessarily just another step in a progressive movement towards a happy future. The future is not guaranteed, and if we are to have a future, we will have to learn from the past and not repeat the mistakes of the present.

With great inspiration from the Argentine “nunca más,” which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, we have chosen the question of possible futures as the theme of our ninth edition. Thus, the program includes a special screening of the documentary The Trial by Ulises de la Orden, as well as a selection of nine documentaries that explore the boundaries in the reinterpretation of the past, discuss the violence of conservative normativities, and point towards fairer futures.

In the nine fiction films included in the program, darkness and terror meet hyperrealism and magic, for example, La Jauría by Andrés Ramírez Pulido, the film which opens the festival thanks to the collaboration of the distributor Smörgåsbord Picture House. Other titles such as The Cow Who Sang Into the Future by Francisca Alegría and The Intrusion by Flora Dias and Juruna Mallon explore dystopian presents to warn of the chaos that can come with unlimited accelerated transformation.

Last but not least, we have an excellent short film program with three shorts that address the theme of the violence faced by women in Mexico and Central America. Migrant women seeking refuge, mothers desperately searching for their missing daughters, and women organizing against femicide – the protagonists of these films are characterized by their resilience, strength, and solidarity.

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Stockholm Latin American Film Festival, Panorámica.