NORHEIMSUND
by Ana A. Alpizar

12min | Cuba/USA | 2025

A girl’s long-distance romance with an older Norwegian man promises to pull her and her mother out of their austere life in Cuba, but her dreams are shaken when she realizes he isn’t as idyllic as he seems.​

​Year of production 2025
Length 12'
Country Cuba/USA
Shooting Format Digital 4K
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Dialogue Spanish

Director Ana A. Alpizar
Producers Madeline Rose Finkel, Ana A. Alpizar
Executive Producer Juan Pablo Daranas Molina
Production Company FILA20
Writer Ana A. Alpizar
Cinematographer Yuqian Zhang
Editor Ana A. Alpizar
Assistant Director Orlando Mora Cabrera
Casting Libia Batista
Sound Designer Denis Colina
Line Producer Mónica Alejandra Pita
Production Assistants Liliana Bárbara Guevara, Omar Durán Vento
Art Director Juan Carlos Tavio
Set Design Daniel Torres Soria
Set Decoration Johendri Martínez Aguilera
Wardrobe Ana A. Alpizar
Makeup Artists Yannay Miranda Montero, Catalina Montero Reina
Cast Yaité Ruiz, Paula Massó Varela, Darianis Palenzuela, Kiriam Gutiérrez, Alexandra González Corrales, Elizabeth Castro Cedeño, Isabel Lluis Ibonet, Liliana Bárbara Guevara
​
Festival selections
Venice International Film Festival 2025 - World Premiere
Adelaide Film Festival 2025, Australia
Festival de Cine de La Habana 2025, Cuba
Festival International du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand 2026, France
Sundance Film Festival 2026, USA
Minimalen Short Film Festival 2026, Norway
​​Muestra de Cine Internacional de Palencia 2026, Spain
​Tampere Film Festival 2026, Finland
​Cine Latino 2026, Norway
​Landshut Short Film Festival 2026, Germany
Green Mountain Film Festival 2026, USA
Miami Film Festival 2026, USA
Florida Film Festival 2026, USA
​Ru-mòre Cinema and Audiovisual Experimentation Festival 2026, Italy
​Brussels Short Film Festival 2026, Belgium
​​Women+Film Festival 2026, USA
​​Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival 2026, Germany
Cortisonici International Short Film Festival 2026, Italy - Jury Special Mention
​Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2026, USA
​​Golden Grape International Short Film Festival 2026, Georgia
​​FILMAY Short Film Festival Kumanovo 2026, North Macedonia
​Leiden Shorts 2026, Netherlands
​​​SXSW London 2026, UK
​Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2026, USA
Adriatic Film Festival 2026, Italy
​LIFE AFTER OIL International Film Festival 2026, Italy
​Palm Springs International ShortFest 2026, USA
​
Director's Statement
Since I was a child, I grew up hearing stories about sixty-year-old Europeans who, essentially, bought exotic Cuban brides with the promise of a better life.
These women were the Cinderellas of post-Soviet Cuba, seen
as heroines not only for having escaped the island’s agonizing reality, but also for their potential to become providers for
their families from abroad. Unfortunately, those stories aren’t just distant memories; they still reflect the painful everyday reality of thousands of Cuban women today.
Norheimsund is precisely an invitation into that bittersweet world, a door opened to a place where the brutality of circumstance can render deeply human even that which, in another context, would be unforgivable. This story was born
out of a desire to tell an intimate tale of mutual sacrifice between a mother and daughter, two women who carry the weight of each other’s expectations and broken dreams, trapped in a country where hope seems to have faded long ago.

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