Field Recordings Day 2 - To the West, in Zapata

To the West, in Zapata by David Bim, 74 min, HD video, Cuba / Spain, 2025, Spanish with English subtitles Set during the Covid-19 pandemic in Cuba's remote and impoverished Zapata Swamp, the film follows Landi and Mercedes as they struggle to care for their autistic teenage son Deinis. The father secretly hunts crocodiles by hand to feed the family, while the mother cares for the child and the household, waiting for Landi to return from the swamp. Deprived of any institutional support, the couple endures a daily cycle of sacrifice, resilience and painful absence. Filmed over eight years in close collaboration with its protagonists, the film is an intimate portrait of lives lived in permanent urgency, holding a family together in the face of precarity. Content note: the film contains images of violence against animals.