(Cuba, Costa Rica, France, 2019) Drama / 85 min / Spanish with English Subtitles
Dir: Armando Capó

Amidst the greatest crisis in Cuban history, a boy’s life will change forever.

At the end of the Cold War, Cuba experienced one of its worst socio-economic periods. Euphemistically called “Special Period in Time of Peace”, this era was marked by economic scarcity and a massive migration wave to the United States known as the balseros (rafters) crisis. This occurred in August 1994, the few weeks depicted in Armando Capó’s debut film, August, a sensitive coming-of-age movie that follows Carlos, a teenager living with his parents and senile grandmother in the rural coastal town of Gibara. Under the blazing summer sun, he spends time with friends and explores his sexual curiosity all while enduring precarious living conditions with the support of his loved ones. As he witnesses illegal immigrants heading north in frail boats, he never imagines that, one day, his family will be affected by this diaspora. His life takes an unexpected turn defined by the rapidly shifting landscape of international politics.