To the West, in Zapata – Films

Al oeste, en Zapata

David Bim
Cuba, Spain | 2025 | 74 min
World premiere
Language : Spanish
Subtitles : English, French

Special Jury Award offered by la Société des Hôteliers de la Côte

International Critics’ Award – FIPRESCI Award

Landi and Mercedes live in Cuba’s Zapata swamp, a biosphere reserve. To feed their sick child, Landi must secretly hunt crocodiles, leaving his wife and son behind for days on end. Amid social unrest and a global pandemic, To the West, in Zapata follows this loving family as they go to extreme lengths to survive, in a constant cycle of reunion and separation.

The crackling of a small radio sputters out the lifeless echoes of a Revolution, as dissenters in Havana are brutally suppressed. But Landi, eyes fixed on the stagnant waters, lives on another planet. He has left behind Mercedes, his partner, and their autistic son Deinis, to bare-handedly poach crocodiles in the marshes of the Zapata Peninsula—a partially protected area of the island, and their only means of survival.
For his debut feature film, Cuban director David Bim worked in complete solitude, with a scarcity of resources that mirrors the hardship endured by this family. Long, immersive sequence shots, marked by a rigorous naturalism, are elevated by stark black-and-white cinematography and the density of diegetic sound. Together, they convey the tension of solitary hunting in a hostile environment, as well as the rare, tender moments of connection and respite the trio share—before the next, always painful, separation. To the West, in Zapata portrays, with rare formal precision, the heartbreaking condition that binds its protagonists: living for one another, yet caught in an unending cycle of need and absence.
Emmanuel Chicon

To the West, in Zapata, 2025
Infinite Journey, 2019
A Tree Falls, 2017
Perhaps Tomorrow, 2016
The Last Two, 2015