Kinolatino: the annual rendez-vous of Latin American cinema.

For yet another year, Cinema Palace welcomes Kinolatino, the festival that celebrates Latin American cinema. On the programme: around ten feature films and short films, as well as opportunities to meet directors from all corners of the continent.

As every year, the festival aims to highlight the diversity and richness of Latin American cinema. The festival will open with Un poeta, a Colombian dramedy about the life of a doomed poet, played by non-professional actor Ubeimar Rios. The film was acclaimed at Cannes last year, in the “Un certain regard” section. 

Among the other films that caught our attention is Vainilla by Mexican director Mayra Hermosillo. With this, Hermosillo signs her first feature film, inviting us into a story set in the 1980s centred on a female microcosm banding together to save the family home. In a different style, a second Mexican film promises to make a big impact at Palace: No nos moveran by director Pierre Saint-Martin. This debut black-and-white film follows a woman’s quest for revenge after her brother’s death during the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968. Over 300 people were killed in this state crime when Mexican soldiers opened fire on representatives of student movements. This massacre remains forever etched in the Mexican collective memory. Times have changed, and now the film has been selected to represent Mexico at the Oscars and the Goya Awards.

No nos moveran, de Pierre Saint-Martin

The Kinolatino festival does not focus solely on fiction and also gives pride of place to documentaries. This year’s selected documentaries are full of promise, notably the Venezuelan documentary Araya which will close the festival. This is a restored version of a classic of Latin American documentary cinema from 1959. Director Margot Benacerraf offers us a film like a symphonic poem, transporting us to the Araya peninsula, shaped by the dryness of the salt marshes. It is a wonderful opportunity to pay tribute to this filmmaker, who passed away in 2024, and who inspired an entire generation of the new Latin American cinema.

Two other documentaries promise to be just as exciting. First, Runa Simi by Peruvian Augusto Zegarra, follows Fernando in his mad dream to dub Disney’s The Lion King into Quechua. It’s a commitment to his son, to whom he wants to teach the symbolic importance of this language of the heart. More traditionally, the documentary Bajo las banderas, el sol uses never-before-seen archive footage to revisit the longest dictatorship in Latin America, that of Paraguay. The documentary promises to shed light on the propaganda mechanisms established by Alfredo Stroessner’s regime, which enabled him to rule the South American country for more than 34 years, with the support of the United States.

An excellent selection of Latin American films for this edition of Kinolatino, which will take place from 20 to 28 March at Cinema Palace in Brussels, but also in Antwerp, Liège, Louvain-la-Neuve, Namur and Nivelles. The whole program can be found here: Kinolatino · Festival de Cinéma Latino-américain de Belgique 2026