Thorns of the soul

Eight short stories of seduction and illicit encounters between lovers, filled with humor and eroticism, which use a circular structure located in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a colonial city of Mexico.

Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.

In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.

In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for her father, Tona, led by her mother, aunts, and other relatives. As the day goes on, building to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol begins to understand the gravity of the celebration this year and watches as her family does the same.

Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.

After being falsely accused of a terrible crime, Hector, a man with a neurological disability, goes to a secret prison. His goodness conquers the prisoners, who plan to prove their innocence.

A woman who works in a meat packing plant is continuously preyed upon by lecherous men.

A family lives in the Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. Esther is in charge of running the ranch, while her husband Juan, a world-renowned poet, raises and selects the beasts. Although in an open marriage, their relationship begins to crumble when Esther falls in love with an American horsebreaker and Juan is unable to control his jealousy.

In 1976, Argentina fell into the hands of a de facto government. Thousands of citizens are persecuted and kidnapped. This is the case of the parents of two children, who, knowing they are wanted, decide to hide.

Sofia, 14 years old, is in love with Ulises. Because of him, in spite of him, she is forced into a prostitution network in Mexico. To set her free, Ulises will have to find another girl to replace her. Adapted from Jorge Volpi’s novel, set in the world of juvenile prostitution.

Ana and her two best friends, Maria and Paula, navigate life in their oppressive countryside village. Whilst their families struggle in the poppy fields harvesting opium, the girls try to grow alongside the creeping terror of their cartel oppressors.

Manuel's life is upended when Esmeralda, his lost love from 15 years ago, calls unexpectedly. Despite being set to marry another, he rediscovers Esmeralda, and they realize their love transcends time.

Patricia is a woman who was handed over as payment for her father's debt to the mafia. Her life takes a turn every moment, positioning her each time in a better rank within the mafia.

Chimo turns 18 years and comes from a humble and supportive family. Since childhood he was bullied and even today, while working multiple jobs and dreaming of starting his own business, he continues to face his bully: El Rubio. When Chimo has the opportunity for revenge, he never imagines what begins as an act of retaliation could turn into an unexpected friendship that'll change both their lives.

After having a nearly fatal drug overdose, 19-year-old Argentine Martin is sent to Madrid, where his film director father lives with his new, younger lover, Alicia, and his bisexual actor friend, Dante.

Juan lives in clandestinity. Just like his mum, his dad and his adored uncle Beto, outside his home he has another name. At school, Juan is known as Ernesto. And he meets María, who only has one name. Based on true events, set in the Argentina of 1979, this film is one about love.

Ema is a magnetic and impulsive dancer in a reggaeton troupe. Her toxic marriage to choreographer Gastón is beyond repair, following a decision to give up on their adopted child Polo. She sets out on a mission to get him back, not caring who she’ll need to fight, seduce or destroy to make it happen.

The story focuses on the life of a couple and their twin sons, one of whom begins to show that he identifies as a girl. From this, Gabriela, the mother, will try to understand the situation of her son who soon becomes a trans girl, thus beginning a struggle for the rights and gender identity of Luana , who will also have to face the rejection of her father Guillermo.

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

Mexico City. Every day, Beatriz is insulted and humiliated by her jealous husband, but she does not flee his side because they have created a codependency and, at least for her, she would not conceive of her life any other way: by dint of feeling humiliated, she feels desired and desirable.

Lucca, a young trans man from the outskirts of São Paulo, travels to Foz do Iguaçu — at the crossroads of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina—in search of the father he never knew. There, he meets Diego, a Paraguayan who introduces him to the secrets of the borderland.

Paraguay, 1958. The charismatic Narciso returns from Buenos Aires with rock ’n’ roll in his veins. Under the suffocating military regime, his radio show becomes a music sensation and a symbol of freedom.

The first ever Paraguayan feature tells about the mass wave of European immigrants at the turn of the 20th century.

It tells the odyssey of Atilio and his granddaughter traveling to Buenos Aires, from Paraguay, his native country. The landscapes that run, the characters they encounter along the way, each with their own way of seeing the world.

The life and times of famed Paraguayan musician Agustín Pío Barrios, from the years of his youth to his international success.

Betty Jara reassembles the Yaguareté Commandos to exchange an imprisoned criminal for one of her own agents. A risky operation becomes even more so when she realizes they are not just fighting a drug ring but the highest spheres of power.

A typical weekend out of "the dogs." The protagonists are a trio of teenagers who do what all 17 or 18 year old boys do: they ask dad for the car and go to some burger shop. In the middle, the film paints the environment: family relationships, love relationships, friendships. Until a surprising ending that changes the realistic code for the fantastic code.

Rubén González appears one day on a farm looking for work, the owner of the farm, a German named Hans, gives him the opportunity to stay, what he doesn't know is that Rubén comes with intentions to steal, since he has information that the "German" has many hidden jewels, in turn, Rubén also doesn't know that the "German" will realize his true intention.

The masks we wear end up using us. A different character to each of the people in his life, a stranger to himself, Jorge Torregrossa constantly faces the loss of his own identity. A mysterious voice on the phone warns him that an irrevocable event is approaching in his destiny, meanwhile Torregrossa runs through the labyrinth of his existence, looking for a way out before it is too late.

"The Napkin Universe" tells the story of Felix and his friends, youths in search of answers to life's great mysteries, transcendence and love all the while facing the routine conflicts of existence in that stage of life where we go from adolescence to adulthood. The city of Asuncion becomes the urban backdrop onto which this story is scribbled.

A 1978 Paraguayan film set on the last days of the Paraguayan War.

In the midst of the military dictatorship, a calm silence surrounds the peasant life of a grandmother and her granddaughter in the interior of Paraguay, until a sudden absence makes it unbearable.

In 1983, the inhabitants of the city of Pilar struggle against nature in an attempt to survive an imminent rise of the river, and amid the desperation, hope emerges.

Eami means ‘forest’ in Ayoreo. It also means ‘world’. The story happens in the Paraguayan Chaco, the territory with the highest deforestation rate in the world. 25,000 hectares of forest are being deforested a month in this territory which would mean an average of 841 hectares a day or 35 hectares per hour. The forest barely lives and this only due to a reserve that the Totobiegosode people achieved in a legal manner. They call Chaidi this place which means ancestral land or the place where we always lived and it is part of the "Ayoreo Totobiegosode Natural and Cultural Heritage". Before this, they had to live through the traumatic situation of leaving the territory behind and surviving a war. It is the story of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode people, told from the point of view of Asoja, a bird-god with the ability to bring an omniscient- temporal gaze, who becomes the narrator of this story developed in a crossing between documentary and fiction.