Set in San Antonio De Los Baños, a sleepy town in inland Cuba, and shot in langurous black and white tableaux, The Oceans Are the Real Continents traces the stories of three generations of townspeople.
Lacerated by the Caribbean rain, Edith (Edith Ybarra Clara) and Alex (Alexander Diego) are both actors, an artsy couple in their 30s with an on-again, off-again relationship; they share moments of love, playfulness and resentment, grow apart and reconvene. Milagros (Milagros Llanes Martínez) is a lonely elder making a post-retired wage by selling manì (Cuban roasted peanut cones). She lives a quiet life of mundane tasks and memories from a long-gone past. Finally, Frank and Alain are two little boys who imitate the men around them and dream of emigrating to the United States and playing for the Yankees together.
An exquisite love poem to Cuba.
Patricia Boero, The Film Verdict
October 3 & 5: Q&A with director Tommaso Santambrogio
Alexander Diego, Edith Ybarra Clara, Frank Ernesto Lam, Alain Alain Alfonso González, Milagros Llanes Martínez
Cuba/Italy
2023
Panorama
In Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Executive Producer
Ricardo Figueredo Oliva, Marcello Mustilli, Alessandra Limentani
Producer
Marica Stocchi, Gianluca Arcopinto
Screenwriter
Tommaso Santambrogio
Cinematography
Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci
Editor
Matteo Faccenda
Production Design
Alexis Álvarez Armas
Director
Tommaso Santambrogio
Tommaso Santambrogio is a young Italian director; he has lived between Milan, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Havana, and has collaborated with several internationally renowned filmmakers, such as Werner Herzog and Lav Diaz. His first short films (Escena Final and Los Océanos Son Los Verdaderos Continentes) were both screened in 2019 at the Venice Film Festival and were then selected in many festivals around the world. Taxibol (2023), his new docu-film, recently premiered at Visions du Réel. Oceans Are the Real Continents is his first feature film and premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Porcelain War
In Canada we cannot truly comprehend a scenario in which our country is invaded and civilians compelled to take up arms. Yet for Ukrainians, this is the reality. In Porcelain War, three artists elect to stay and fight -- with cameras, yes, and with guns.
Inay (Mama)
Bold and deeply personal, Inay investigates the emotional and psychological repercussions of Canada's Live-In Caregiver Program, which attracted Filipino women migrant workers who left their children to care for strangers out of economic necessity.
La Cocina
First day at the Grill for undocumented Mexican Estella. The work is unremitting, the melting pot is boiling, and Julia (Rooney Mara) is due to have an abortion -- to the fury of her lover, one of the chefs...
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) tells the story of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who captured some of the most vivid and compelling images of the apartheid regime in the 1960s but died in near obscurity in the USA just as Mandela was released.
Obsessed with Light
Nearly a century after her death Loie Fuller is still inspiring artists like Taylor Swift, Shakira, Bill T Jones and William Kentridge. She became world famous as an innovative dancer, combining fabric, lighting effects and movement in revolutionary ways.
