SECTIONS // OVERVIEW OF THE SPANISH DOCUMENTARY

HOTEL NUEVA ISLA

Irene Gutiérrez
71' / 2014 / Cuba, Spain
Web: www.hotelnuevaisla.com
Spanish
English subtitled

In a rundown part of old Havana, what was at the turn of the century the luxurious Hotel Nueva Isla has become the refuge of a group of people living on the margins of society: Jorge, a retired civil servant, and his two neighbours, Waldo and La Flaca. 

With scarcely any contact with the outside world, Jorge resembles an exiled and long-forgotten Don Quixote. Day after day his body and health become gradually weaker, like the walls of the Hotel Nueva Isla itself. Deserted by his children and the women he once had, for years his only motivation has been his pursuit of a revelation: he is convinced that hidden away somewhere in the ruined hotel are the valuable objects left by the former owners before they fled after the triumph of the Revolution.

But life inside the ruins becomes more and more dangerous, and while the other neighbours gradually depart in search of a safer place, Jorge refuses to leave the building.

Main Festivals & Awards

ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / SECCIÓN BRIGHT FUTURE / NOMINADA AL PREMIO FIPRESCI / JEONJU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / COMPETENCIA INTERNACIONAL / CINELATINO REENCONTRES TOULOUSE / SECCIÓN “OTRA MIRADA” / IBAFF, COMPETENCIA INTERNACIONAL OPERA PRIMA / FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL CINEMATECA URUGUAYA / TRANSCINEMA PERÚ / COMPETENCIA INTERNACIONAL.

Director's Biography

She studies Audiovisual and Multimedia Comunication in the Sevilla University (1995-2001). In 2002 she gets a scholarship form the INJUVE Insitute to study Documentary Cinema in the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV, La Habana, Cuba). She graduates in 2004. Postgraduate Studies in Spanish Cinema in the Rey Juan Carlos University (2009). Her pieces of work as a director and photographer have been exhibited in different international festivals like the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Indie Lisboa, Jeoniu International Film Festival, Documenta Madrid, and Festival de Cine Lationamericano de La Habana where she was a member of the Jury in the Documentary Selection in 2010. Now she works as a director and freelance photographer going back and forth between Spain and Cuba. She is, also, the head of the Documentary Chair of the EICTV. Berlinale talent Campus 2014.

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