Balseros

Colour, 35mm
Spain, 2002, 120 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

In 1994 a television news crew filmed seven Cubans and their relatives several days before a risky adventure. They planned to sail in improvised craft to Miami in order to escape the economic troubles which have afflicted Cuba since the dissolution of the Soviet empire. Soon afterward, the camera catches up with the castaways at a refugee camp at the Guantanamo Bay US naval installation. Seven years later we meet up again with the immigrants, who have to a greater or lesser extent found the long-desired American Dream. The strongest element of this powerful, journalistic film is the precisely delineated structure of the seven mutually interlocking lines which “set out” from the shores of Cuba only to meet again – though in different locations in the States – in a final reckoning of gains and losses.

About the director

Carlos Bosch is a TV columnist and reporter for the programme 30 Minutes. He has also produced and directed many broadcasts and documentaries focusing on military conflicts (Persian Gulf, Kosovo etc.), and has made a five-part documentary series History of the Caribbean (Historias del Caribe). On top of his news activities, he served as an activist for a humanitarian organization in Sarajevo. Josep M. Domenech (worked as Carles Bosch’s cameraman on the series History of the Caribbean. He, too, works as a TV columnist and reporter for the programme 30 Minutes.