In the Zapata swamps, amidst a cycle of survival and separation, a couple must push their limits to the extreme to feed their child.
Landi and Mercedes live in the Zapata Swamp, a national park in the Matanzas Province of Cuba. To support their sick son, Landi secretly hunts crocodiles with his bare hands for their meat. Meanwhile, back in town, Mercedes cares for her son, who suffers from severe autism, waiting for her husband to return with food. Landi spends lonely nights in the swamp, far from home, listening to the radio as COVID-19 spreads across the globe. With exceptional black-and-white cinematography and perhaps one of the most impressive hunting scenes in recent memory, this documentary transports us to a corner of Cuba marked by scarcity and the struggle for survival.
Danilo Petrovich, FIDOCS 29 programmer
David Bim is a filmmaker based in Havana and director of the FICCLAB feature film development program at the International Film School of Cuba. In 2017, he began developing his debut feature film, 'Al oeste, en Zapata' (To the West, in Zapata), which had its world premiere in the Official Selection of Visions du Réel 2025.