Jointly
Organized
by:
Organized
by:
Original name: La Invención de las Especies
English name: On the Invention of Species
Year: 2024
Run time: 91 minutes
Language: Spanish
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Colour
Country: Ecuador
Director: Tania Hermida
Producers: Tania Hermida - Lía Rodríguez
Cast: Ana María Carrión, Pancho Aguirre, Gabriel Saltos, Jean Carlo Cabrera
Screenplay: Tania Hermida
Cinematographer: Tomás Astudillo
Editor: Iván Mora Manzano
Sound Designer: Raymi Morales
Costume Designer: Paula Carrasco
Production Designer: Gonzalo Martínez
Production Company: Ecuador Para Largo
World Sales: Habanero
Born in Cuenca, Ecuador, writer-director Tania Hermida is a graduate of the International Film & TV School (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba), where she directed her first short films. Her first feature film was an audience success in Ecuador and won several awards, including the Silver Zenith for First Films at the Montreal WFF, and the Coral Award for First Films at the Havana FF. Tania combines independent filmmaking with university teaching and research on screenwriting. She’s a Member of the New Latin American Cinema Foundation and has been invited to participate as key speaker and jury in several film festivals and conferences.
Twelve-year-old Carla is grieving and speechless when she arrives at the Galapagos Islands accompanying her father, an expert in turtle conservancy. During seven days, that evoke those of the Book of Genesis, she explores the island and the meaning of the words that live there. Together with native islander Darwin (15) and Wiki (12), she discovers secret places and meets Harriet, an old “curandera” who practices the art of healing with stories. Resembling the iguanas, that mutated into sea creatures to survive, Carla becomes an "Island" and learns to cling to the rocks, wait, plunge, and emerge to tell her story.
