To the West, in Zapata ^{met inleiding}

The film is set during the coronavirus pandemic in the remote and impoverished Zapata swamp in Cuba. We follow Landi and Mercedes, who are trying to care for their autistic teenage son Deinis. The father secretly hunts crocodiles with his bare hands to provide food for the family, while the mother takes care of their son and the household and waits for Landi to return from the swamp. Without any institutional support, the couple undergoes a cycle of sacrifice, resilience, and painful absence every single day. The film was made over the course of eight years, in close collaboration with the main characters, and offers an intimate portrait of a family that is constantly under pressure and trying to stay together despite the vulnerability and uncertainty in which they live. Al oeste, en Zapata by David Bim was one of the highlights of Field Recordings 6, last June at WORM Rotterdam. Field Recordings is now screening the film once more, this time at Filmlokaal Hammerstraat, with a short introduction by Tim Leyendekker. Field Recordings is a festival and film programme for experimental and anthropological film, sound, and landscape cinema, which he curates together with Marta Hryniuk. With thanks to Gemeente Rotterdam and WORM.