Rafael Urban

Valley of Souls

A man returns to his home in the Colombian countryside after a long fishing night and discovers that paramilitary forces have killed his two sons and thrown their bodies into the river.

Vaivén

Every day, 18-year-old Nori walks to the Bauta station to listen, watch, and feel the vibrations of the passing trains.
 His playful imagination leads us through the space as we witness his obsession and sensory experience of arrival and departure. A glimpse of adolescence in the Cuban countryside.

Agontimé

Priestess, slave, queen. After two centuries trapped in Sao Luis, Brazil, Agontimé breaks free and embarks back to her homeland, the Kingdom of Dahomey – current Benin –, hoping to retake the sacred place that is her by right.

The Cemetery Lightens

A radio plant transmits that Havana and nearby towns have fallen. Hundreds of young people dance in a bunker and a man whispers verses from the Bible at a railway station.

Visit to Lloyd Hotel via Google Earth

In a documentary recorded on his computer screen, the Brazilian Antonio Urban revisits, through Google Earth, the steps of his Polish ancestors in Amsterdam, Holland, en route to Brazil.

João e Maria

The widower João declares his loneliness on a radio program and meets Maria, a recently separated woman who yearns for a new life together.

The Last Vodunsi

In 2011, I visited Mrs. Deni Prata Jardim, the last representative of the Casa das Minas (House of Minas) in Northern Brazil. Among other things, Deni told me the story of the foundation of the house, during the slavery period. Among the slaves, there was a priestess from Dahomey, where she used to be a queen, and worshiped African voodoos. Lacking authorization to practice their worship, the slaves hid in a shed, which has become over the years the House of Minas.

The Bull

There’s a myth that suggests the ghost of the 16th-century Portuguese king Don Sebastiaan founded a magical kingdom on the island of Lençóis off the Brazilian coast after his defeat against the Moors. Five centuries later, a young Portuguese woman (and a small film crew) arrives there. The island is still enchanting.

The King

A Portuguese king who disappeared in the desert of Morocco in the sixteenth century comes forward. Under the threat of having to return to Portugal in the XXI century, Dom Sebastian reveals his whereabouts and the secrets of the kingdom he built over all these years in faraway Ilha de Lençóis in Northeastern Brazil.

Dinosaur Eggs in the Living Room

An old woman attends classes of digital photography and editing. It is not a late hobby, but a project undertaken with a clear aim in mind. Ragnhild Borgomanero wants to be able to preserve the memory of her deceased husband Guido, the biggest private collector of fossils in Latin America.