Julia Silva

Its not about secrets, is hiding them.

Miguel is a 17 year-old boy that sees the future as a distant horizon, immersed in his bubble of friends and a sketchbook full of sentimental poems. 'Saudade' is the portrait of a threshold: the end of high school, which we experience through Miguel. Set amidst the backdrop of the Ecuadorian economic crisis of 1999, 'Saudade' tackles notions of economic dislocation, friendship, family and young love while juxtaposing the crumbling of Miguel's life, against the crumbling of his country.

As Cotopaxi spews ash, issuing an eerie penumbra over Quito, a young woman confronts dormant familial conflicts. Desperate for a place to store her things as volcanic disaster looms, Caridad turns to her long-estranged father Galo for help. Galo abandoned Caridad’s mother long ago and is eager to make amends, but questions concerning the nature of his transgressions linger, straining communication between father and daughter and casting grave doubts over the possibility of reconciliation.

Alba, 11 years old, passes her days in silence. She loves little animals. She has learned to cope with her mother's illness, helping her to use the bathroom. Alba plays silently so that her mother can rest during the day. One night Alba's mother gets worse, and has to be taken to the hospital. With no one else to take care of her, Alba is sent to live with her father, who she hasn't seen since she was three years old. Living with her father is almost unbearable. Embarrassment, her first kiss, visits to mother in the hospital, Edgar's tender efforts to get close to her, and bullying at school; these are some of the experiences that pave Alba's journey to puberty and to self-acceptance.

Ernesto, a biologist who lives with his mother, spends his days teaching at the university and waiting for his chrysalis to grow. One day everything is different, something suddenly changes.

Ale and Emma, two twin sisters spend the weekend of the elections together, perfectly knowing that they both think differently about politics.

Julia, a thirty-year-old newly separated and in search of a life change, finds two new friends. The three begin to live an intense friendship that turns into a love triangle in which their frustrations and fears of not knowing if they will manage to be who they dreamed to be when they were younger.