Uruguay, le pays de la simplicité

El Maracanazo del 50

Biographical portrait of the labor movement and left wing movement in Uruguay, "Conversations with Turiansky" combines two stories. The first portrays the son of immigrants, the engineer passionate about the mystery of electricity, the man in love, the movie buff. The other places the protagonist in his time: union struggles, the advance of authoritarianism, prison and the challenges of the present. In both are present the lucidity, commitment, discreet tenderness and humor of Wladimir Turiansky.

Tells the story of Gerardo Bleier after the pain caused by the loss of his father, Eduardo, detained and disappeared during the Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1985). The documentary portrays the meaning of truth and the search for freedom since the discovery of Eduardo's remains in 2019.

In 1983 a group of 154 children aged 3 and 17 years old traveled alone from Europe to Montevideo. They were children of political exiles from Uruguay, who were unable to come back to their own country; they sent their kids to know their relatives and home country. That human sign, charged with a political message, took part in children’s identity development. Nowadays, six of them still remember that day, when a crowd received them singing all together “your parents will come back”.

Ten years after winning a world title in bodybuilding in Russia and becoming a star of said discipline in Mexico, Antonio Osta (43) leads a life of austerity in the Uruguayan rural town where he grew up. He resides there with his son Juanjo (17), a sensitive teenager who keeps him company and confronts him openly. Suffering from acute kidney disease which keeps him from competing professionally, Antonio is stuck in limbo, halfway between his glorious past and the impossibility of being who he once was. However, he is unwilling to give up his lifestyle, even if it kills him. In an attempt to reinvent himself, and seeking a better future for his son, Antonio plans a comeback to the Mexico bodybuilding scene, where he may relive his glory days.

Documentary about the birth and development of candombe in Uruguay. It is built through testimonies, audiovisual files and animations. It also covers the actuality of the candombe on the shores of the Río de la Plata.

In 1986, the Uruguayan Parliament passed a law granting amnesty for all crimes and human rights violations committed by the military and police during the dictatorship (1973-85). This law of impunity prevented the clarification demanded by the relatives of those who had disappeared and been murdered by the former regime. A public initiative arose calling for a referendum in which the law be subject to the vote of the people. Unas preguntas uses U-matic footage, mostly of interviews recorded on the streets of Uruguay between 1987 and 1989, to present a time capsule of the period.

Punta del Este was built upon a small, treasurable port town still alive in the memories of former residents and visitors. However, talk of progress has arised in present times. A kind of progress involving physical, historical, spiritual destruction. Bajo la Arena poses a crossroads between the passage of time and its ever-present traces in the landscape and in people's affections.

Documentary about the musical artist and drag queen Pady Jeff produced by students of the Social Communication degree at the Catholic University of Uruguay.

This documentary captures a deeply personal journey by Argentinian actor and musician, Nicolás Pauls, to the Uruguayan coast. This area hosts two of the world's foremost sea lion colonies. Isla de lobos and Cabo Polonio. A famed sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of sea lions. Pauls presents the two sides of the complex conflict between the local artisanal fisherman, struggling to earn their living and the sea lions who risk their survival in leaving the boundaries of the island.

Puertas Abiertas

ONLY NOISE is a documentary that tries to rescue from oblivion a tale with Les Renards as protagonists, one of the many bands from the 60s that was a key witness and pioneer in the first big explosion of Uruguayan Rock. It might look like a tale from an ordinary band, but in 1968 this band managed to break a world record.

Images of Argentinian companies and factories in the first light of day, seen from the inside of a car, while the director reads out documents in voiceover that reveals the collusion of the same concerns in the military dictatorship’s terror.

Documentary about Uruguayan Hardcore Punk band "Setiembreonce". Put together with archive material, old recordings and different interviews with key members of the Hardcore Punk community in Uruguay and surroundings areas. A testimony of a music genre based on its message, its DIY mentality and a clear conviction for collective work.

The campaign of the Uruguayan rugby team, nicknamed "Los Teros", during the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualification, and the amateur character of its players that contrasts against the professionalism of their group rivals.

The Punta de Rieles prison was where most female political prisoners were incarcerated during the dictatorship in Uruguay. The way up to the building led through “the meadow” where there were animals grazing, and the prison itself was surrounded with flowers. The place seemed eminently liveable, almost comfortable, and at first sight there was no sign of the silent struggle going on behind those walls. This documentary is an attempt to reconstruct life at the prison through the testimony of some of the hundreds of women who were there and who resisted the military regime's attempts to grind them down and destroy them.

A documentary on the life of Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter José Mujica.

Armed based on photography, period films, archival materials and testimonies of survivors, family members and historians, the documentary accurately and exquisitely reconstructs the course of the “expropriating anarchists” in the Río de la Plata and specifically in Montevideo del First third of the 20th century.

In 2004, after 174 years in which political power was always held by one or other of the parties on the right, a historic change at last became possible in Uruguay. This documentary was filmed in the days coming up to the election, and it shows how the common people saw their country. The main protagonist is the man in the street. With humour, with intense emotions, with a lot of dignity and a passion for politics, these Uruguayans show how proud they are to be playing a role in their country's history.

A day in the life of a lighthouse keeper on a remote cape off the Uruguayan coastline.