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' CountryCuba/USA Shooting Format Digital 4K Aspect Ratio 16:9 Dialogue Spanish
DirectorAna A. Alpizar Producers Madeline Rose Finkel, Ana A. Alpizar Executive Producer Juan Pablo Daranas Molina Production Company FILA20 Writer Ana A. Alpizar CinematographerYuqian Zhang Editor Ana A. Alpizar Assistant Director Orlando Mora Cabrera Casting Libia Batista Sound DesignerDenis 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
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.
