Madai, Shanel, Rosmer, and Victoria are four young queer people who fled their home countries in South America (Colombia and Venezuela) in search of a better future in the United States. Their dreams, however, collided with the superpower's immigration policies and came to an abrupt halt in Guatemala, where they found themselves in a shelter where they reinvented themselves and built a home. This is the subject of Shelter, the new documentary by Spanish filmmaker Adrián Silvestre following May Your Will Be Done [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrián Silvestre
scheda film], My Emptiness and I [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrián Silvestre
scheda film] and Sediments [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrián Silvestre
scheda film] (as well as the fiction feature The Objects of Love [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]). The film premiered at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in the Open Horizons section.

As in Sediments, Silvestre has joined a group of people who bare their souls before the camera, recounting what their lives were like before arriving at the shelter in Guatemala. It is a burdensome past (marked by sexism, homophobia and violence), yet one they are reluctant to abandon, because despite everything they have endured, they still long for their homes and their families of origin.

With a few reconstructed scenes, such as the interviews conducted upon their arrival at the institution, the rest of the film unfolds through day-to-day coexistence: their conversations, meals and festive moments, including a peculiar Miss Universe contest improvised with four pieces of fabric, two crowns and plenty of humour. For despite their dire circumstances, these individuals have found a new home in this shelter, a place where they feel loved, protected and accepted. Here, they have been reborn to build a future filled with dreams and hopes.

None of them have been consumed by defeat or frustration; instead, they feel the desire to embrace a better existence. “Cut the drama!” becomes their motto, repeated throughout this non-fiction feature about resilience, where the most dramatic and cruel moments echo but remain off-screen.

With this sensitive, inclusive and empathetic film, Silvestre aims to raise awareness of – and defend, without artifice – these shelters which, supported by various charities, serve as a true home for people who are wounded, excluded and uprooted, in need of protection and emotional support. In a world as turbulent, unpredictable and volatile as today's, anyone could find themselves facing circumstances similar to those experienced by the film’s four protagonists.

Shelter is produced by Adrián Silvestre Films, with international sales handled by the Utopía Docs agency.