EMPTINESS (Vacío) [OmeU, Spanish, Mandarin with Engl. Subt.]] Ecuador’s Official Oscar® Entry

Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, 2020, R: Paul Venegas, 94 min.

"A rare glimpse into the Chinese migrant experience in Latin America" 

Lei and Wong arrive clandestinely in Ecuador. She dreams only of reaching New York. He longs to bring his son back from China. Their paths cross with Chang, a bipolar gangster obsessed with Lei, who believes he owns everyone’s abyss.

EMPTINESS (Vacío) is a powerful portrait of the immigrant experience, a journey through displacement, male-dominated dynamics, and the fight to preserve one’s dignity.

Following its selection as Ecuador’s official Oscar® entry, EMPTINESS arrives to its Berlin Premiere after winning Best Feature Film at BAFICI (Argentina) and the Guayaquil International Film Festival, and screening in official competition at festivals such as Chicago, Busan, Osaka, AFI (Washington), Cine Ceará (Brazil), Ottawa Latin American Film Festival, and the Uruguay International Film Festival. The film is also a recipient of the prestigious Ibermedia Fund.

Presented in the frame of BERLATIN Screenings, the event is co-organized by LATIN QUARTER Film Distribution and CiLENS, a Berlin-based film collective that explores the potential of cinema as a space for transcultural dialogues through the showcase of independent Chinese films. With the collaboration of Kino Babylon.

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