Oceans are the Real Continents
Three stories of migration, exile, and memory develop in the Cuban town of San Antonio De Los Baños, a place that time forgot. Alex and Edith, a young couple in their 30s, build their lives upon small gestures, reminisces, and a deep connection amidst the nation's ruins. Milagros survives selling peanut cones on the street, spending her days listening to the radio and reading old letters. Nine-year-old best friends Frank and Alain go to school and dream of emigrating to the U.S. to become baseball players.
A “beautifully realized” and “exquisite” (The Hollywood Reporter) debut from filmmaker Tommaso Santambrogio, Oceans are the Real Continents brilliantly captures the complexity of life in Cuba today. With striking cinematography and a remarkable cast of first-time actors, Oceans are the Real Continents is a “wistful and poetic journey sure to linger on in memory” (InReview Online).
Cast
- Alexander Diego
- Edith Ibarra
- Frank Ernesto Lam
- Alain Alain Alfonso González
- Lola Amores
- Jhon Steven Baldriche
- "[B]eautifully realized.... Both desolate and exquisite."
- "Mesmerizing... stunning.... Oceans Are the Real Continents is an ode to a wounded, wondrous country that still bleeds and loses its young to emigration."
- "Exquisitely realized...Santambrogio’s extraordinary cast of non-professional actors convey a lived-in, personal, and impossible to fake connection to the pleasures, struggles and intricacies of life in Cuba. "
- "There is a ravishing kind of beauty in Tommaso Santambrogio’s lyrical triptych of contemporary Cuban life, OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS. With black and white cinematography that privileges an exacting formalism throughout, this portrait of the island works hard to defamiliarize the very sun-dappled, colorful image of Cuba that so dominates the cultural imaginary. "
- "All three strands {of OCEANS] involve experiences of separation, a theme that Santambrogio gently counters with a circular structure...united in a gorgeous train station tableau near the end."
- "[L]ikely to break your heart."
- "A poetic, poignant and beautifully constructed work that is both artistically resonant and deeply moving."
- "[A] wistful and poetic journey sure to linger on in memory."
- "Oceans Are the Real Continents is a dazzling film to look at and -- better yet -- to lose yourself in."
- "Oceans Are the Real Continents is a beautiful, bittersweet love letter to a place and a people that remain irrevocably intertwined even in separation."
- "Filmed with marvelous attention to subtle contrasts possible in its monochromatic palette, the frames brim with a built-in timelessness. "
- "Santambrogio’s film... is not one of big narrative manouevres or dramatics but of the smaller ripples of emotion that ebb and flow through life with just as much impact."
- "[V]isually enrapturing.... A film to be contemplated, and stored safely in your heart."
- "The black-and-white Oceans Are The Real Continents is subtly intoxicating. [A] meticulously crafted and absorbing film. "
Awards & Recognition
Giornate degli Autori Award
Venice Film Festival
Audience Award World Cinema
Vancouver Int'l. Film Festival
Miami Film Festival
Audience Award
Thessaloniki Film Festival
Best First Film
Havana Film Festival
Audience Award
Montreal Int'l. Documentary Festival
Best Film
Athens Panorama of European Cinema
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