Extreme challenges for survival in the modern era

“To the West, in Zapata” follows the extreme challenges faced by a Cuban family during the pandemic. The touching story comes to the international documentary and short film festival “DokuFest”. It is about the extreme sacrifice to ensure a modest living for the family

The daily battle for survival is not only a concept for war. But also for living in extraordinary circumstances for millions of people in the world as a result of difficult conditions. This struggle for existence also comes with the debut film of Cuban David Bim. “To the West, in Zapata” follows the extreme challenges faced by a family in his country during the pandemic. The touching story comes to the international documentary and short film festival “DokuFest”. It is about the extreme sacrifice to ensure a modest living for the family.

The radio that the protagonist Landi listens to every day sets the date as July 10, 2021. Filming began and continued around that time. Living in isolation, the protagonist initially seems to be in complete harmony with the environment that surrounds him – an exotic forest. 

An old man, completely alone, he eats and drinks from what nature offers him. He drinks from the water that flows from the swamp and even bathes in it, he sleeps on an improvised bed. There is no house there, but his shelter is a plastic sheet. On the radio, he follows information about the victims of Covid-19 in his country and political developments. All he owns is the boat he goes fishing with. 

The black and white images are an illustration of an older way of life as a phenomenon. Or of the colorless world for the protagonist, who is all that is on his mind is the prey from which he provides a living for his mother, wife, and autistic son.

Director David Bim said that by not using color, he aimed for the story to be deeper. 

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"If I were to put colors I would have to stop the colors in some other places. In architecture, colors are fulfillment, but in film it's about the depth of the image and also about the belonging of the characters and their connection to life, identity and territory. And you can't fake it. Either it belongs, or it doesn't," he said. 

Director Bim said that this format made him feel the film more. 

"The film and my life are the same. I had to feel. Black and white helped me create my own words that were not in my mind, because I think cinematography expresses reality and does not copy it. I understood the autonomy of feeling and the distance from the reality I lived in by making it black and white," he further expressed. 

He revealed that the film took eight years to make. The family's life, being constantly separated, is one of the main points. 

"For me, the essence of the film about this divided family is important. To capture the essence, the movements must be captured. For me, these characters are like those of Dostoevsky, because they are always divided and in motion, this for me is the essence. It is more of a film about time, which is not equal for all of us. In Cuba, time is everything, it is like an alarm. For this family, it is difficult, there is always hunger," the director said.

The swamp is his joy and despair. In his coffin-like boat surrounded by water and lilies, he brings a captivating film sequence full of artistic elements. 

The drama comes when he walks through the water trying to trap a crocodile. It makes you anxious about the danger that the protagonist may face. But he seems invulnerable to the dangers that surround him, driven by the need to secure the goods for what is there. 

In the second part, titled “Mercedes,” the scene parallels the opening of the first part, where Landi was carrying a crocodile that had captured him on his back. Mercedes now carries the burden of her autistic son, Deinis. She eagerly awaits Landi’s return from his trip to the Zapata swamp. After two days of delay, she expresses her concern, and it becomes apparent that Landi is risking his life to support their family. She declares that they are more likely to die of hunger than from Covid-19. 

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With his return with the crocodile skin bags, their cycle of survival, absence, and silence continues. 

This is the Cuban director's first film. He shared his experience with the family that is the subject of the project. 

"I told them we would be together, but in peace. There was no internet there, no mobile phones. Sometimes it was very boring and sometimes 'wow'. I listened a lot, I spent a lot of time understanding the place, the territory. I took in a lot of sounds that I recorded," said director Bim. 

Daniela Horna, an agricultural economist from Peru, praised the film as perfect.  

"It was perfect. It took me to another reality. There were many good things, but I personally liked the cinematography a lot. There were different plans and intimate connections between the characters. You could see that the director was close to the family and had even become a part of it. As if the camera wasn't there, it amazed me. I heard that it's his first film, I think he has a bright future," she said. 

And architect Eltiana Shkreli considered it to be very artistic and with a fitting theme. 

"Actually, at first I was hesitant to watch it because I was reading a comment online that said it's a family's life of survival and sometimes that makes you feel bad. There are many challenges to surviving in a swamp, but on the other hand it makes you think that even our communities in the mountains have managed to create these types of survivals that people understand better," she said, adding that the film's theme fits with that of the festival. 

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"It creates a contrast to today's reality, which is consumerist, it is excessive greed, which is also the theme of 'DokuFest', but it is also a spiritual void and on the other hand we also have the antipode of a challenging reality in survival, but which makes you feel good. There are moments of love in the family and all these diversities make it more artistic and very meaningful for the viewers," said Shkreli about the film screened at "DokuKino" on Tuesday. 

For a family on the margins of Cuban society, hunting crocodiles is literally a matter of life and death. And this is made clear by the feature-length documentary film in the international category at DokuFest, "To the West, in Zapata."