Calls from Moscow
(Llamadas desde Moscú)
Luis Alejandro Yero | Documentary
2023 | 66 minutes | Cuba, Germany, Norway
An apartment in Moscow becomes the stage for one day in the lives of four queer Cuban exiles, shortly before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine changes everything.
Synopsis
Luis Alejandro Yero’s striking first feature focuses on a group of migrants and their temporary dwelling in a snowy Moscow high-rise complex. The Russian capital was a pathway for the four young queer Cubans seeking to emigrate from the island until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts their fate in limbo.
They live in the city as migrants, some illegal, others recently arrived with a tourist visa. They work at whatever they can find, whether cleaning groceries or as telemarketers selling medicine. They can be as fabulous as they want in the apartment, but the elevator that brings them down to the Moscow streets is already a different space, where they avoid attracting attention; Russia and Cuba are so very far apart.
Spare and intensely felt, the film records their connections to the outside world—phone calls with loved ones, immigration service lines, even remote work—that punctuate the silence and bring small comforts. Far away from the city streets where a bleak war campaign is taking hold, Calls from Moscow quietly contemplates an internal world of waiting.
Reviews
“Yero’s artfully methodical observational film injects an essential perspective into the queer canon. Yero and cinematographer María Grazia Goya favour static long takes that capture the malaise of the waiting game.” — Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
“Between the stillness and empty spaces, the ambient sounds and ominous alien droning, the exquisite framing of rooms and the desperate exiles “trapped” inside them, a jarring existential portrait emerges: Like watching Tolstoy body-snatch Havana.” — Lauren Wissot, Filmmaker Magazine
Citation
Main credits
Yero, Luis Alejandro (film director)
Yero, Luis Alejandro (screenwriter)
Yero, Luis Alejandro (film producer)
Sánchez López, Daniel (film producer)
Fernanda Pirir, Elisa (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, María Grazia Goya; editing, Luis Alejandro Yero.
Citation
Cataloging
Pragda subjects
Caribbean Studies
Exile
Fascism + Repression
Gender + Sexuality Studies
International Relations
Latin American Studies
Migration Studies
Political Science
Keywords
Clips
Festivals
Berlin International Film Festival; Doc Fortnight: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media; Hot Docs; Guadalajara International Film Festival - FEISAL Special Mention Award; FIDBA-Órbita - Special Mention; Pridox Prishtina International Film Festival; Belo Horizonte International Film Festival; Costa Rica International Film Festival; Asterisco Film Festival; Bogota International Film Festival; Gijón International Film Festival; Festival dei Popoli; FILMAR en América Latina; MIDBO; Transcinema; INSTAR Film Festival; Dialogues: Calcutta International LGBTQIA+ Film and Video Festival; Icaro Internacional Film Festival; Miradas Medellin; Third Horizon Film Festival
DIRECTOR: Luis Alejandro Yero
NATIONALITY: Cuba, Germany, Norway
YEAR: 2023
GENRE: Documentary
LANGUAGE: Spanish; English; Russian; Other languages
COLOR / B&W: Color
GRADE LEVEL: Adult, College, High School
SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE
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